Mike's OCA Learning Log

Landscape Course - The Four Seasons

2011-05-17T10:48:00.000+02:00

In discussion with my tutor about the 'Four Seasons' exercise (Project 15), it was agreed that I could undertake an urban landscape project with the challenge of producing one photograph per season at a chosen inner-city location which would show sufficient seasonal variation.

I decided to choose the canal side location near the International Convention Centre/Symphony Hall in the centre of Birmingham, which is called 'Waters Edge'. This is close to where I live so access was no problem.

For all four shots I chose a low position on the canal side and shot diagonally across the canal to include most of the footbridge connecting the ICC with Brindley Place, a view of the canal under the distant (Broad St) road bridge towards The Mailbox, the 'cafeteria canal boat 'George' and the converted canal-side warehouse that is now the Pitcher and Piano' pub.

Summer

The flowers across the bridge and on the upper right - together with the clouds! - show that this is a summer shot and it was taken in early July using my Tokina wide angle lens. f/13 with a shutter speed of 1/250 seconds at 11mm. ISO 400. Tripod.

Autumn

This shot was taken on a typically misty autumn evening at dusk as people make their way home. I like the reflections of the orange lights in the canal. For this shot I used my Canon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, f/4.5 and shutter speed of 1/50 secs. ISO 400.

Winter

We have had two consecutive very severe winters when the canals have been frozen for weeks. This January shot shows large chunks of ice broken off by the passage of boats along the canal. Tokina wide-angle lens, f/8.0 and shutter speed of 1/4 secs at 11mm. ISO 400. Tripod.

Spring

Taken early morning on 1st May on a bright sunny day making strong reflections on the water. Plenty of new leaves on the tree on the left and there is even some left-over Royal Wedding bunting on the canal boat on the right! Tokina wide angle lens, f/16 at shutter speed of 1/50 at 11mm. ISO 100. Tripod.

Conclusion

I think that I have demonstrated in this series of photographs that it is possible to show seasonal variations within an urban landscape, if it is chosen carefully.

Landscape Course Portfolio

2011-05-16T18:18:00.000+02:00

I decided to take my Portfolio shots at Nymans Gardens in East Sussex for mainly practical reasons. When I started the Landscape course (April 2010), I was living in Spain but I knew that we would be re-locating to the UK later in the year. Therefore, I needed a location in the UK but one that I could visit when we made trips from Spain to see family. As we have grandchildren in Brighton, it made sense to choose somewhere accessible to there, hence Nymans.

The first three photographs, chosen from those taken for Assignment 1, represent Spring. The first shows the typical blossom at that time of year. I used a Canon 50mm lens at f/1.8 to obtain a shallow depth of field.

The second shot has been adjusted slightly to take account of my tutors comments about positioning the bridge higher in the frame.This shot was taken using a Tamron zoom lens at 100mm at f/22 with exposure time of 2.5 seconds (using a tripod, of course).

The third shot is again adjusted from the original and has been cropped to give more emphasis to the daffodils and to place them on a 'third'. Tamron lens again, f/9, shutter speed of 1/15 sec at 65mm.

The first of the summer shots is looking towards the house and a family picnicking. Taken with the Tamron zoom lens at f/22 and a shutter speed of 1/6 secs @ 154mm.

I produced a shot similar to this second Summer shot for Assignment 1, but my tutor felt that the path was too central and it needed to be taken lower down and nearer to the tree. I have tried to follow that advice here with this wide-angle shot taken at f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/55 seconds @16mm.

The final summer shot was again taken low down but with the zoom lens at f/22 and shutter speed of 1/13 seconds @59mm.

The autumn shots were taken on an overcast day and highlight some of the vivid colours seen at this season of the year. The first shot, though, was taken from ground level looking through fallen leaves. Tamron lens 18 - 270mm, f/16, shutter speed 1/8 at 21mm, ISO 100.

The second autumn shot has both wonderful golden leaves on the tree on the left but a very brooding sky. Tamron 18 - 270mm lens, ISO 100, f/16, shutter speed 1/30 secs at 42mm.

The third shot shows a number of different trees, all showing their various autumn colours. Tamron 18 - 270mm, f/16, shutter speed 1/20 secs at 91mm, ISO 100.

I had been hoping to get some snow covered landscapes for the winter photographs to really distinguish the seasons but, unfortunately, this wasn't possible for this portfolio. The first early winter (November) photograph gives some hints of the season with the colour of the leaves but it could almost be an autumn shot. Tamron 18 - 270mm lens, f/10, shutter speed of 1/40 secs at 35mm and ISO 400 (without tripod).

Similarly with the second shot but this has more of a winter feel with the almost bare branches. Tamron 18 - 270mm lens, f/11, shutter speed of 1/13 secs at 59mm and ISO 400 (hand-held).

The final shot is taken deeper into the season (early February) and is unmistakeably winter with the naked branches standing out in the sunshine. Tamron 18 - 270mm lens, f/11, shutter speed 1/400 secs at 154mm and ISO 400 (handheld).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think that I created a difficulty for myself with the location chosen for the portfolio exercise as there wasn't enough variety in landscape available within Nymans. I felt this particularly in trying to produce something distinctive for the winter, and to some extent the autumn, photographs. If I were to do the exercise again, and as I have now returned to live in the UK, I would have chosen somewhere like the Peak District with its more dramatic landscape and seasonal variations and I would have included more 'distance' shots, as well.

Landscape Assignment 5 - post tutor comments

2011-03-22T20:15:00.000+01:00

As I said in the introduction to this final assignment, I found this the most difficult to date and the comments from my tutor bear out my struggles. I would have liked to have spent time in more remote locations and at times when the light was particularly dramatic but this did not prove to be possible. I found the comments, as always, constructive and pertinent.

As pointed out by my tutor, many of the photographs submitted for the assignment would have been better with more shadow or lower camera angle. Some would have been enhanced with tighter cropping.

I have made some adjustments to several of the photographs to try and reflect the points made in the tutor report.

Photograph 6

This was considered to have too much empty space in the foreground and I have cropped the shot to bring more emphasis to the stumps.

Photograph 4

If I were to take this shot again, I would use a wide-angle lens as suggested but I have attempted to improve the image by converting it to a square format to make the gravestone a stronger part of the frame and I have 'lost' the left hand object referred to by my tutor by using the 'Patch' tool in Photoshop.

Photograph 7

Here I have increased the contrast and removed some of the distracting branches on the left hand side.

Photograph 10

Following my tutors advice, I have increased the contrast and created a gap betweeen the top of the cross and the overhanging branch. I think this is much better but perhaps there should be a gap between the tree trunk and the right-hand branch. Or is this being over sensitive?

All the above shots are somewhat better as a result of the adjustments but none even approach the quality of those produced by Fay Godwin!

The next step

2011-03-12T15:55:00.000+01:00

I am currently putting together the assessment pack for the Level 2 Landscape course which will be assessed in July. The course has been very instructive although a little complicated in that I have had two bases for its duration - one in Spain and one in the UK. Fortunately, my tutor has been very accommodating in letting me produce my assignments electronically, via this blog.

The big decision recently has been 'what to do next'. I certainly want to continue the OCA route to a BA in Photography as it gives me something tangible to aim for so the choice has been whether to tackle another Level 2 course or to start one or two Level 1 courses to complement 'The Art of Photography' which I finished in 2010. It seemed to me that it was important to complete the Level 1 courses as soon as possible and, as the remaining two - 'People and Place' and 'Digital Photographic Practice' appear very different - it should be possible to study them concurrently.

Having taken advice at the OCA stand at Focus on Imaging this week and raising the question with fellow students via the OCA on-line forum, I feel confident that I can successfully study these two courses at the same time. Therefore, I have now enrolled for both and intend to start at the beginning of April, having now received the course documentation.

Although I am retired and, in theory at least, have plenty of spare time, I will need to plan the course work carefully to put in the required number of hours. Also, I need to consider whether to start another blog or to use this one for both. What I do know is that it is going to be an interesting year ahead!

Assignment 5: In the style of an influential photographer

2011-02-10T17:57:00.001+01:00

I have probably said this before but this has been the most difficult assignment to date as I found it very difficult not only to distil, in my own mind, the particular style of Fay Godwin, my chosen photographer, but to then go and take 12 photographs to illustrate this.

First of all, it is important to decide what we (I) mean by style. The course material, in the introduction to Section 5, "Styles and Themes", makes two interesting observations about the 'style' of Fay Godwin's work. With respect to the choice of subject, this is described as "quiet, unspectacular English scenes" and the format of her photographs is described as "both medium and 35mm" depending upon the subject. Ignoring the fact that much of her landscape work was carried out outside England - in Scotland and Wales, for example - there are clearly other ways of describing her style of photography.

In an attempt to further define Fay Godwin's style, I have borrowed some definitions of style from art history, set out by Heinrich Wolfflin in his book "Principles of Art History" as they have some relevance here. His three principal parameters of style are

Linear v Painterly - the extent to which a painting (or photograph, for our purposes) contains sharp outlines and elements which stand alone as opposed to having shapes melding together (almost towards impressionism)

Plane v Recession - the extent to which images appear to be set in one or more horizontal planes rather than having the eye being drawn into the picture.

Closed v Open - where the overall composition seems to point inwards in a self contained way (closed) giving the impression that the image itself is the most important thing rather than being drawn outwards (open)to hint that it is part of a (more important?) larger whole.

In looking at Faye Godwin's work in the light of this model, I would suggest that, more often than not, her photographs are linear, plane and closed. There are many photographs of monuments, isolated buildings, particular subjects (e.g. restriction notices to illustrate her 'forbidden land' series) for instance.

In choosing photographs for this asignment, I have tried to illustrate this analysis, although local availability of the type of landscapes photographed by Fay Godwin and the more open access to the countryside these days (although this may change under the currrent Government(!) have eliminated some of the subjects she chose herself. I was always mindful of the framing of shots so that some I have presented in a square format and most in black and white, to reflect the way she produced most of her landscapes.

f/11 at 59mm, 1/125, ISOI 400, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/11 at 59mm, 1/250, ISO 400, Tripod, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/11 at 35mm, 1/20, ISO 400, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/8.0 at 50mm, 1/80, ISO 400, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens

f/14 at 46mm, 1/400, ISO 400, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/14 @ 65mm, 1/100, ISO 400, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/11 @ 18mm, 1/1000, ISO 400, Tripod, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/22 @ 119mm, 1/6 secs, ISO 100, tripod, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/11 @ 18mm, 1/40 secs, ISO 100, Tripod, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

f/8.0 @ 50mm, 1/500, ISO 400, Canon EF f/1.8 II lens

f/11 @ 100mm, 1/4 secs, ISO 100, Tripod, Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro

f/8 @ 218mm, 1/250 secs, ISO 400, Tamron 18 - 270mm lens

The final two colour photographs are my attempt to reflect some of her later work with colour in the Glassworks and Secret Lives series.

The Mexican Suitcase and a puzzle resolved

2011-01-05T11:12:00.000+01:00

"The Mexican Suitcase" is the title of an exhibition of rediscovered Spanish Civil War negatives by Robert Capa, David Seymour (Chim) and Gerda Taro. It is being shown until 9th January at the International Center of Photography in New York and I was fortunate enough to visit it in December. The title of the exhibition refers to the recent (2007) discovery in Mexico of three small cardboard boxes of negatives which had disappeared out of Capa's Paris studio at the beginning of WW2 and presumed lost, although there were always rumours of their survival.

Many of the images of the above three photographers are very recognisable as they appeared in foreign news magazines during the Spanish Civil War and were reproduced subsequently for other publications. To provide context with these images, the exhibition displayed copies of the original magazines.

The negatives provide an amazing record of the years of the Spanish Civil War, both of the fighting and of the affects on the ordinary people of Spain as they struggled with their everyday lives. The most fascinating aspect of the find has been the possibility of adding context to the published photographs by being able to trace, through the strips of negatives, what happened before and after the published image. It was also apparent how many images were taken to produce those iconic photographs.

I wrote in February last year about what I called the David Seymour 'puzzle' relating to his famous photograph titled 'A Public Meeting in Estremadura, just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Spain. 1936' but sometimes, confusingly, called 'Air Raid Over Barcelona,1938' (see the standard text 'Photography. A Concise History.' by Ian Jeffrey page 189). The original negative was on one of the strips discovered in Mexico and clearly demonstrates that it had nothing to do with an air raid, or Barcelona.

An explanation for the mistaken identity was suggested by the exhibition curator as follows. The photograph was first published on May 14th 1936 in 'Regards', the magazine of the French Communist Party and reproduced in the magazine 'Madrid' in 1937 with a montage of airplanes flying over the woman, so was mis-captioned as being during an air raid. The negative being lost, later reproductions were made from copy prints which not only cropped the original composition but darkened the tones, reinforcing the erroneous identification. This seems quite convincing to me as the image shown in books like 'Photography. A Concise History' (referred to above) is much more tightly cropped than the original negative which shows a large crowd of peasants in a village square rather than several anxious-looking faces.

All in all, this was an excellent exhibition, both from a photographic and historical perspective and I hope that it comes to the UK sometime soon. I wanted to buy the exhibition catalogue but was somewhat dismayed by the US $98 price tag. Still, I have a few postcards to remind me!

Landscape Assignment 4 - Fay Godwin (includes comments on tutor report)

2010-12-04T19:57:00.070+01:00

I regret to say that, before embarking on the OCA Landscape course, I hadn’t heard of Fay Godwin. Having reviewed the work of the five suggested photographers, I was really impressed by the brooding landscapes of Fay Godwin and the more I have looked at her work and read about her approach to photography, I am very glad that I chose her for this assignment.

There is no doubt in my mind that Fay Godwin is one of the best landscape photographers that this country has produced. Although born in Berlin, Germany in 1931(her father was a British diplomat and her mother an American artist) and then spending her early years at various schools throughout the world, she lived most of her adult life in the UK, settling in London in 1958, at the age of 27. She died in 2005 at the age of 74.

Fay Godwin became interested in photography relatively late in life, her interest being stirred by taking family snap-shots. As she said, her then husband was unable to get to grips with the technicalities of the camera so she was the one who took charge. She had no formal training and she found it very difficult to learn about the art of photography because of the lack of courses and photographic exhibitions at that time. However, when her marriage broke up in 1970, she decided to try and make a living out of photography, perhaps in response to her husband suggesting that she should earn money by becoming a secretary! She had already done some portraits of some well known writers, all taken in natural light, for use on the dust jackets of books and she put together a leaflet showing some of these which she sent to everyone that she could think of, with some success, obviously.

Although Fay Godwin is thought of mainly as a landscape photographer, it is worth saying here that the portraits referred to above were of a very high standard. Photographing her subjects in their own homes and without that use of flash she produced some very striking shots, all in black and white, like this shot of Ted Hughes in 1971.

In the mid 1970’s, her ex-husband died and she was diagnosed with cancer. Her ex-husband's estate would take many years to sort out and she needed money to support her two sons. She said that she had been approached separately by the writer John Fowles and poet Ted Hughes about collaborating with her on a book and she decided to try and put together the photographs for both books in the same year as, she said, she needed the money (South Bank Show – November 1986).

Immediately prior to this, she had been working inside factories, taking photographs of some of the appalling conditions in which people had to work but she decided that, with her illness, she wanted to get out into the open air, thus starting the phase of her career for which she is most renowned. Ted Hughes suggested the Calder Valley, close to his birthplace, where there were lots of old, disused mills, most not there anymore. According to photo historian and friend Roger Taylor, the northern landscape was a revelation to Fay having lived her UK life up until then in the Home Counties. As she said later in her introductory essay to the book ‘Our Forbidden Land’:

That was the real beginning of my getting to know this country, where I felt a foreigner. (Godwin, 1990, P11 )

The Godwin/Hughes collaboration resulted in the book ‘Remains of Elmet: a Pennine Sequence’, published in 1979, which was re-printed several times, finally as ‘Elmet’ in 1994 with additional poems and photographs. Fay Godwin said years later that this 1994 edition was the work for which she would like to be remembered.

Her collaboration with John Fowles, referred to above, probably resulted in the book ‘Islands’, published in 1978 but her major work with him was for the book ‘Land’ in 1985. In a very interesting essay that introduces the book, Fowles talks about the influences that shaped Fay Godwin’s approach to photography. He quotes part of a 1983 interview which she gave:

I don’t have an academic approach to photographs, and I’m not very interested in theory. I’m much more interested in working. The old question about whether photography is an art is a silly question. I’ve been called a Romantic photographer and I hate it. It sounds slushy and my work is not slushy. I’m a documentary photographer, my work is about reality, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be creative.(Godwin, 1983).

Most of the landscape work she produced was in black and white and, during a video shown at the 2010 retrospective exhibition ‘Land Revisited’ at the National Media Museum in Bradford, she commented that this suited her mood very well around the time she was working on the ‘Remains of Elmet’ in the mid 1970s. That she continued with this approach in later years during happier times, is perhaps an indication of the considerable success she achieved in producing such striking images without the use of colour, although the dark tones and high contrast of the early landscape years were much reduced.

In viewing the photographs for ‘Land’ at the retrospective exhibition, I had the strong feeling that the use of colour (film) would have been counter-productive as the mood and composition of the images were much enhanced by being captured in black and white. Also, and unusually for landscapes, much of her output was in square format. She was a perfectionist with respect to the film and print paper chosen for her photographs and in deciding on their sequence in her various books, according to Roger Taylor with whom she collaborated.

When the National Media Museum acquired the complete set of vintage exhibition prints from ‘Land’ in 1994, which formed the basis of the 2010 exhibition ‘Land Revisited’ exhibition, Fay Godwin wrote an article titled ‘How Land Came About’. This article was made available on-line as part of the Museum publicity for the retrospective. In reading this article, it is clear how focussed Fay Godwin was in completing her many landscape projects and in producing work of the highest quality, often in unpleasant conditions. She did this despite a number of ‘disasters’ (her word) caused by having to discard many images (from 150 rolls of film) because of faulty negative material (she later obtained financial compensation from both Ilford and Agfa).

As was her usual practice, she spent a lot of time arranging the final prints for the book so that it had “it’s own logic and sequence”. It was finally published in 1985 and was sold out before its publication. In the same year, an exhibition of the photographs opened at the Serpentine Gallery in London. By 1994, the time of the article quoted above, the book was in its fifth printing and had sold 25,000 copies.

In November 1986, Fay Godwin became the first photographer to be the subject of The South Bank Show. This, she said, was despite the reluctance of Melvyn Bragg:

who had been extremely nervous about showing photography, and sought to ‘legitimise’ it by comparing it with painting”, particularly that of Victorian watercolour painters. (Godwin, 1994)

It is worth considering here whether Melvyn Bragg was justified in his approach. Authors of work are not always best placed to judge how their work will be seen and, even though Fay Godwin certainly did not see herself as producing work comparable to romantic landscape or Victorian watercolour painters, there are certainly marked similarities in that both these painters and herself were portraying man’s interaction with, and influence on, the landscape.

Part of the programme showed Fay Godwin ‘on location’ taking photographs and walking in remote areas with her camera equipment and rather large tripod. Her enthusiasm, patience, attention to detail and understanding of light were quite apparent. (Video accompanying the ‘Land Revisited’ exhibition, 2010)

Perhaps it was because she wasn’t born in the UK that gave Fay Godwin, almost like a convert, her love of the British landscape and her passion to use her work to bring attention to the threats facing it. Despite having much of the cartilage in one of her knees removed when she was 40, following a skiing accident some years earlier, she was an extremely keen walker and, therefore, saw and experienced these threats at firsthand. She was strongly influenced by Wainwrights Guides to the Lake District and joined the Ramblers Association in the mid 1950’s, eventually becoming its President from 1987 to 1990. It was in 1990 that she published her most political work, ‘Our Forbidden Land’, which comprised an essay by her and a collection of black and white photographs drawing attention to a number of issues which amounted to a campaign against the detrimental way the countryside was being managed:

I felt my own best contribution as President would be a book, and decided at the time to work on ‘Our Forbidden Land’. (Godwin, 1990, P27 )

In her introductory essay, she gave many examples from her own experience of restrictions which had been placed upon her as a photographer and walker. For example, she had been subject on numerous occasions to “red-tape interrogations” whilst photographing the pre-historic stones at Avebury, often when the light was at its best for photography. Also, she encountered access problems whilst working on her book ‘The Drovers Roads of Wales’.

The issues highlighted in the book included:

• The right to roam. She advocated government legislation to create access on foot to the 87% of land then in private ownership, the largest being the Forestry Commission, MoD and the National Trust.

• Removal of hedges at the rate of “one mile per daylight hour in the first half of the 1980s”.

• Extensive use of pesticides by farmers, causing potential risks to humans and animals. She also pointed out the problems caused by the spray drift of chemicals used by farmers.

• Organic farming. She became a strong supporter of organic farming during her fight against cancer when she was advised to eat as much fresh organically-grown food as possible.

• The presence of bulls and dogs where there were public rights of way.

• Extensive conifer planting by the Forestry Commission, then the country’s biggest landowner.

• Military Exclusion Areas like Greenham Common.

• Access to monuments like Stonehenge which at the time was not open to the public.

• Nuclear power

The photographs in the book leave little to the imagination in respect of the author’s intention but each has an accompanying text to reinforce the message. As Fay Godwin said:

normally I am happy to let people interpret my pictures in their own way, but I decided that for this book the ambiguities should be clarified”.........”It has become my personal exploration of the environment now.(Godwin,1985, P27 )

While some of the photographs are straight-forward shots of warning signs or restrictions, there are some excellent ‘photo-journalism’ photographs showing various scars on the landscape caused by human intervention like ‘Pont Scethin area being prepared for water privatisation’ (P 113)

as well as wonderful natural landscape photographs like 'Choinnich, Cuillin Hills, Skye' (P149).

For those who had labelled Fay Godwin as a ‘romantic’ photographer, this set of photographs must have given them the shock that the photographer possibly intended and reinforced her view that she was first, and foremost, a documentary photographer. Photo historian Roger Taylor thought that the most accurate term to describe Fay Godwin’s work would be as a ‘topographer’, a term used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to describe:

someone who specifically went into the landscape to report back by means of sketches, charts, and written accounts of what they had encountered. Topographers were travellers with attitude, curious to understand everything they beheld (Taylor, 2001, P17)

Certainly the phrase ‘travellers with attitude’ seems very apt in the case of Fay Godwin.

Although best known for her black and white landscapes, Fay Godwin’s relationship with colour photography began around 1979/80 when she was given a Polaroid camera. In 1986/87, she received a Fellowship at the National Museum of Photography (now the National Media Museum) in Bradford and set out to explore the city and its surroundings using colour:

After Land I wanted to continue exploring the theme but I needed a new challenge so turned to colour. I explored Bradford and produced a series of urban landscapes that I liked, but because Land had made such an impact on the general public my colour work wasn’t reviewed. Maybe black and white is the best medium for landscapes, I don’t know. I’m not faithful to one particular medium, and it’s what I try to teach people who work with me. (Godwin, 2004 final interview)

Certainly, for me, this collection of photographs doesn’t have the overall impact of her black and white landscape work, perhaps because there is less subtlety and a lack of a mysterious quality that was evident in ‘Land’. However, there are some photographs that are really enhanced by the use of colour, like ‘Sunset, Baildon bridge, Shipley, 1987’

and 'Telephone kiosks for sale, Shipley, 1987'.

Her third collection of photographs in the ‘Land’, ‘Our Forbidden Land’ trilogy was ‘The Edge of the Land’ which examined the coastal regions of the UK and published in 1995. Her introduction contained a highly critical view of the National Trust, whose attitude to photography she “deplored”.

Her final major body of work, titled ‘Glassworks and Secret Lives’, published in 1999, was another significant departure from her black and white landscapes, not only by the use of colour but by being of a much more intimate and detailed nature. The subject matter comprised glass, netting and plastic waste, leaves and flowers, all taken close-up with a rather soft focus which resulted in very abstract images.

Her last major retrospective was an exhibition at The Barbican in 2001 and a book, ‘Landmarks’ was published in 2002.

In her final interview, with David Corfield of Practical Photography, given in 2004, the year before her death, when she was ill with heart problems, Fay Godwin explained that, even at 73 years of age, she had embraced a new way of working to make up for the fact that she was unable to get out and about as she would have liked:

I had been working in colour for ten years or so and looked at digital and liked the possibilities it gave me. So I went out and bought this little 5-MegaPixel camera that I like because I don’t have to carry any heavy bags around.

I’ve sold all my darkroom stuff, which was quite a wrench seeing it’s been part of my life for the best part of thirty years, and now I print pictures in Photoshop. It’s impressed me.(Godwin, 2004 final interview)

Fay Godwin died on 27th May 2005. She had a highly successful career as a documentary photographer and the campaigning nature of her work, particularly with ‘Our Forbidden Land’, contributed enormously to raising awareness about environmental issues and ‘the right to roam’. Her success can be shown, among other things, by the facts that restrictions on pesticides have now been introduced, Stonehenge is accessible once again, Greenham Common is now largely restored to its natural state and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000, gave walkers the right to roam over one million hectares of open countryside in England and Wales.

Fay Godwin was, truly, a photographer with attitude.

Comments on Tutor Report Form

My tutor considered this "a good essay" although he had some issues of a presentational nature regarding the need to be more specific about my source material. I shall add a bibliography below.

There were a few points where I hadn't been entirely clear.

1. I had stated that Faye Godwin had already done some portraits of some well-known writers before becoming a landscape photographer although I hadn't stated my source. In fact, there were two that I found. Firstly, in the introductory essay (Page 12) by Roger Taylor from Fay Godwin's book 'Landmarks' (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2001), he states

"Without any formal training, but with a background in publishing and the world of literature, she began taking portraits of writers and poets for use on book jackets".

It should be remembered that her former husband, Tony Godwin, was a well-known bookseller and later worked for Penguin books.

Secondly, in Fay Godwins final interview, with David Corfield, for Practical Photography, December 2004 (www.ephotozine.com/article/No-Mans-Land--Fay-Godwins-last-interview-67), she talked about her start in photography.

"....I was, and still am, an avid reader and so when I first started I chose to photograph many of the great writers in this country to try and earn a living.
One of my earliest jobs was to photograph Ted Hughes, in 1971. I photographed him for a publisher and it all started from there".

2. I stated that she was a perfectionist with respect to the film and print paper chosen, without giving further detail. Roger Taylor, again, in the introductory essay to 'Landmarks', talks in detail about Fay Godwins choice of equipment and materials and her demand for excellence. For example,

- "Godwin has worked exclusively with two film sizes, 35mm and 120mm roll film" (Page 14)

- "The larger format of 120 roll film improves the quality of the result exponentially (compared to 35mm) and is used most frequently by Godwin for her landscapes". (Page 14)

- "........Godwin is a consummate print-maker controlling the nuances of her negatives to an exquisite degree in order to hold information in a range of tones from shimmering highlight to the deepest shadow. The size of her prints is crucial to the manner in which they are viewed and Godwin has never printed larger than 24 x 20 inches, most frequently preferring the more intimate 16 x 12." (Page 15)

- "Over the years Godwin's prints have become more refined and delicate, and at one point she discarded two dustbins of exhibition prints she thought too dark and melancholic" (Page 15)

Bibliography

- 'Land', Fay Godwin (with essay by John Fowles), 1985. Published by William Heinemann Ltd

- ' Our Forbidden Land', by Fay Godwin, 1990. Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd.

- 'Landmarks', by Fay Godwin (with essay by Roger Taylor), 2001. Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing

- 'Fay Godwin, Land Revisited'. 2010. Video transcript (interview with Roger Taylor), National Media Museum.

- 'How Land Came About', Fay Godwin, 1994. Edited account (in 2010) by Fay Godwin to support original 'Land' exhibition at the National Media Museum.

Critique evening

2010-11-06T18:24:00.000+01:00

Last night I attended a 'critique evening' at the South Birmingham Photography Club which I have recently joined. The format is that members take along some of their work on which they would like the opinion of others, including a judge from another club. I took along several prints and three were discussed, as follows.

Red Can

I had taken this shot outside a church in Puerto Real. It was not a staged shot - the beer can really was there! The judge commented on two points. Firstly, he felt that there was too much whitish area at the top of the frame and that cropping part of the top would help. Secondly, he thought that the can could have been placed a little more off-centre, towards the thirds. Other than that, he was quite complimentary.

In the light of the comments, I have re-visited the shot and made some adjustments as shown below.

As can be seen, the can is now on the left hand 'third' and the top has been cropped down. I am more used to seeing the original shot but I think that the revised version is a better composition.

Red and Green

This photograph was taken last year in the old Spanish fishing port of Sancti Petri. Taken originally for a 'colours' project in the Art of Photography course, it shows a red Coca Cola sign and a green parking sign on an old wall. Interestingly, on a recent visit, I noticed that the red sign had gone as had the café to which it belonged. The judges comments on this one were similar to the first shot in respect of the positioning of the red sign, which he felt could be less central. Also, he didn't like the wire which is visible in the bottom right-hand corner and he felt that it was a pity that the shadow cast by the Coke sign had been slightly cut off.

He thought that I had captured the lovely texture the wall and that, overall, he liked the shot.

In the revised shot, I have done some cropping to place the red sign more to the right and to remove the offending wire. Also, I have increased the contrast to bring out the shadow a little more but there was nothing I could do about the shadow being slightly cut off. There are other things which could be cloned out but I feel that they are part of the story of a very old wall. Again, the revised shot is probably better that the original.

Farewell to La Barrosa

This sunset shot at La Barrosa was part of my Assignment 3 submission for the Landscape course. Once again, the judgement was generally positive and the judge felt that the figure on the right-hand side "made the shot". However, there were two points of criticism. Firstly, he felt that the horizon should not be in the middle of the frame and recommended losing some of the sky. Secondly, and not surprisingly, he was concerned about the lens flare and suggested this be cloned out.

The adjusted shot takes account of both of these criticisms and, I believe, it is much stronger. Whether it bothered me or not, the lens flare was a distraction and drew the eye to the detriment of the other components in the frame. Also, I feel that this composition has a better balance by having the sun more on the left-hand 'third'.

Conclusion

All in all, it was a very useful evening and, although only three of my photographs could be shown in the time available, the comments received were very helpful. Although there were criticisms of each of the photographs, I was pleased that it was felt that they were worth improving. It is always good to listen to a judge discuss an individual photograph, be it ones own or someone elses, in order to better understand those aspects which particularly draw their attention, whether or not they have different views on them.

Myth, Manners and Memory - Walker Evans et al

2010-10-22T18:36:00.001+02:00

The above titled exhibition showing photographers of the American South, is currently to be seen at the rather splendid art deco De La Waar Pavilion in Bexley-on-Sea, until 3rd January 2011.

The photographic exhibition, features Walker Evans, William Eggleston, William Christenberry, Susan Lipper, Alec Soth and Carrie Mae Weems. As well as the photographs, the exhibition is supported by a series of morning documentary films about the photographers and the American south as well as afternoon classic films like 'A Streetcar Named Desire', 'Gone with the Wind' , 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and many others. It really is an impressive programme at a surprising location (the next Brighton?) and deserves support.

All the photographers either lived, or spent considerable amounts of time, in the American south but their approach to the subject was very different. The earliest work on show was that of Walker Evans (1903 - 1975) who spent 3 years between 1935 and 1938 working for the Farm Security Administration, an organisation set up by Franklin D.Roosevelt as a means of bringing aid to the rural communities hit by the Depression. Evans was able to travel widely from New Orleans all across the Deep South. I found his portraits of sharecroppers and their families to be particularly poignant.

Another of the photographers, William Christenberry (born 1936 in Alabama), was said to have been deeply influenced by the work of Walker Evans. Each summer since 1960 he returned to a particular location in Alabama to photograph the same buildings. One exhibit shows a collection of about 30 photographs of the same green warehouse from different distances and (presumably) in different years. It reminded me of an OCA project!

It is said that William Christenberry influenced William Eggleston's shift to using colour rather than black and white. I reported on an exhibition of the work of William Eggleston (born 1949 in Memphis) in February of this year when I noted that he was considered "the father of colour photography". So what does this make William Christenberry?

Carrie Mae Weems (born 1953 in Portland, Oregon) is seen more as a political photographer who is quoted as saying that her "primary concern in art, as in politics, is with the status and place of Afro-Americans in our country". The photographs exhibited (from The Louisiana Project (2003)) all include herself in various "politically charged" locations "as witness to the African American experience" in and around New Orleans (a plantation, cemetery, railroad crossing etc). The quotations are taken from the official guide to the exhibition.

The photographs of Susan Lipper (born 1953 in New York) are even more contrived. She spent several months each year (over a 20 year period) living in the same mountain community in West Virginia "not to document their lives - but to take pictures in collaboration with her neighbours". I found this collection of photographs (taken in black and white) a little disturbing in their subject matter whilst, at the same time, their staged nature reduced their dramatic impact.

Finally, the youngest of the six photographers, Alec Soth (born 1969 in Minneapolis) took a series of photographs along the Mississippi, capturing both locations and the people that he met. I like these photographs as they seem to try to get to the heart of how the South is today
by acute observation.

All in all, this is a very rewarding exhibition and one I would recommend.

Landscape Assignment 3 - a linked theme

2010-10-02T14:44:00.003+02:00

For this assignment, we were asked to take 8 photographs on a common theme. Several themes were suggested and, although not obligatory, I have chosen the theme of 'water' as this seemed to link well with some of the sections within this unit, particularly the challenges of taking photographs at either end of the day, and because it would be a reminder of our local area in Spain which we are about to leave.

Although on a common theme, I have tried to vary the type of photographs chosen by using different lenses, times of day, angles of elevation etc. I found that one of the different aspects of taking photographs in low light is the necessity to 'work in the dark' (literally) so being organised is essential. I found the 'live view' function on the camera (Canon 50D) incredibly useful but it was difficult sometimes trying to accurately focus manually because of the light and the type of subject.

The first photograph of the series was taken before dawn at the nearby port of Sancti Petri, using a Tamron 18 - 270mm telephoto lens. By zooming-in, I was able to capture the reflection of the orange sky in the water and the silhouettes of the two boats. Taken at f/16 and exposure time of 0.60 seconds, ISO 100 (with tripod) @109mm.

Photograph number 2 was the only shot taken without a tripod. I had just finished spending an hour taking pre-dawn and dawn shots when I crossed over the headland to look at the estuary. This moored sail-boat in the post-dawn light made a great subject and I included some foreground to balance and frame the shot. Some rare (for here) cloud was a bonus. I would love to say that I had waited patiently for the two birds to fly over the boat but I can't! Taken with my telephoto lens at f/9 and exposure of 1/400 seconds, ISO 400 @130mm.

This is one of my favourite shots of the set. It was taken on the beach here in La Barrosa just after dawn. The shot looks to the north west, so the sun was rising over my right shoulder. I used a Tokina wide-angle lens set very low to the ground in order to achieve the feel of 'stepping stones' leading into the frame. In the distance, on the left, can be seen the lone fisherman who features in photograph number 4. Taken at f/16 with a long exposure time of 3.2 seconds and ISO 100 @12mm.

Another fairly low shot but looking out towards the south-west. The lone fisherman was an obvious choice of subject but the positioning was important. Ideally, I would have liked him on the right 'third', looking into the frame rather than the left 'third' looking out but the balance of the shot would have been wrong as there were no rocks to the left. Having him standing between the two channel markers was some compensation. The slowish exposure time of 0.60 seconds has given the sea a slightly
smooth look. Taken with the telephoto lens at f/16 and ISO 100 (with tripod) @142mm.

Photograph number 5 shows the island of Sancti Petri (rumoured to have been visited by Julius Caesar, presumably not on a package tour). The castle of Hercules, on the island, has recently been renovated, hence the lighter stonework which is supposed to 'weather' to the original colour within a couple of years. We shall see! The castle is to the west and the sun sets behind it during the two equinoxes, but to the left at the current time of year. This shot was taken just after sunrise so the sun was behind the camera. The colours, particularly the sky, are quite warm and the colour of the sea hasn't been artificially enhanced. The sky was particularly interesting so I set the horizon in the lower half of the frame with the rocks in the foreground. The shot was taken with the telephoto lens @130mm at f/16 and an exposure time of 1/20 seconds and ISO 100 (with tripod).

In this shot of the sun setting at La Barrosa, we have not one but two star-like diffractions of the sun (with a bit of unwanted lens glare to boot). As indicated in the course material, this diffraction results from a very small aperture (in this case f/16) together with a small size of the sun's image in a wide-angle view. I had my tripod set very low on the beach (the sand gets everywhere!) to provide some foreground, with the help of a lone figure, and the lens very wide at 11mm. Exposure time was 1/8 seconds and ISO 100. I used a Cokin ND8 grad filter to try and balance the shot. The island can be seen to the right of the sun.

The reflection of the golden sky on the beach as the tide retreats is one of my favourite parts of the sunset and the next photograph features this.

Using the telephoto lens to zoom in on the shore line, I chose a long exposure time of 2 seconds to smooth the waves in the upper part of the shot and to capture the beautiful reflection of the orange sky in the lower third of the frame. The photograph was taken about 20 minutes after sunset. The result is an almost abstract composition which I like very much. Taken at f/25 (to lengthen the exposure time) and ISO 100 @168mm.

Finally, another photograph of the island (for which I make no apology!), about 30 minutes after sunset. The sky was cloud-free and the orange glow got deeper and deeper, making a superb sight which I have tried to capture. I used the telephoto lens at a wide setting (55mm) but still decided to crop the shot to make the island more prominent whilst keeping the wonderful golden colour of the sky with the horizon in the lower half of the frame. The long exposure time of 4 seconds again smooths out the surface of the sea. Taken at f/25 and ISO 100.

Concluding remarks

This was an enjoyable assignment in that I have been able to take photographs of some of my favourite features of my local environment. As mentioned earlier, there are practical difficulties to overcome when taking low light photographs, and even when using 'live view' it is often difficult to be sure of a correctly focused shot, particularly when using a manual focus setting. Having to put reading glasses on and off to check things was an added chore! However, the rewards of getting up early (not too early as sunrise is after 8am now) and waiting patiently for the light until well after sunset, are evident in these photographs - or so I hope. They will certainly be a reminder for me of my time spent here.

'A World Observed 1940 - 2010' - Dorothy Bohm

2010-08-17T11:04:00.001+02:00

Showing at the Manchester Art Gallery until 30th August, this is an excellent collection of black and white and colour photographs spanning 70 years, by Dorothy Bohm, who emigrated to this country from Lithuania to escape the Nazis, just before World War Two. She studied photography in Manchester in the 1940's and eventually set up her own photographic studio there. Many of her portrait photographs from that time are shown, and it was interesting to note that in none of them was the sitter looking directly at the camera. This may have been a technique of the photographer because, as shortage of materials meant that she was restricted to four exposures per client, two were taken with a pose of their choice and two with a pose of her choice (and these were invariably chosen by the clients).

She met her husband of 49 years whilst studying in Manchester and they later travelled extensively overseas because of his business, enabling Dorothy to move away from purely indoor shots to include landscapes and, primarily, street scenes with a human element. The majority of her photographs are of women and children and she felt it was far easier for women photographers to take some of these shots as they could blend into the background more and also appear less threatening than men.

Her introduction to colour was through polaroid and the collection includes some lovely shots of this type. Also included is a mock dark room and short film, shot around the 1970's, with Dorothy Bohm showing how she used to choose and develop her exposures.

Dorothy was one of the founders of the Photographers Gallery in London and she is still an active photographer into her 80's (there were some photographs of Manchester taken this year).

This is a very interesting collection of photographs with a very warm and human touch. There are also some rather quirky pieces, like her series of photographs of 'torn posters'. Well worth a visit. http://www.manchestergalleries.org/.

Landscape Assignment 1 - summer

2010-08-04T11:18:00.000+02:00

Assignment 1 comprised 12 photographs at a location which would show a particular season to good effect. The exercise was to be repeated for each season thereafter. I chose Sussex National Trust property Nymans Gardens and took photographs during the Spring and I have just returned there to repeat the assignment for Summer.

I was only in the area for one day but I think that there is more variety than in the original 'Spring' photographs and I tried to follow the advice given by my tutor to include more foreground and take shots from different heights.

The first photograph was taken low-down with a wide-angle lens and follows the entrance path towards the gate. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/4 secs, f/16 at 11mm.

Shot number two was also shot low-down with a wide angle lens and I wanted to capture some of the shadows and to get closer to the trees on the left. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/5 secs, f/16 at 11mm.

With photograph number 3, I tried to balance the roof of the house on the left with the tree on the right, while placing both in accordance with the 'rule of thirds'. I used a circular polariser with my telephoto lens. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/15 secs, f/22 at 119mm.

Throughout the assignment, I tried to include figures where appropriate and this fourth shot, taken with the telephoto lens along an avenue of trees towards the house, is ideal in portrait mode with the group of figures off-centre. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/6 seconds, f/22 at 154 mm with circular polariser.

Here, in photograph number 5, I wanted to include both the plants as foreground and the clouds as background so used the wide-angle lens very low down. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/30 secs, f/22 at 11mm.

I was intrigued by this dragon-fly sculpture in one of the ponds and photographed it from an elevated position using a telephoto lens and circular polariser. I deliberately placed the dragon fly on the left as the blue sky and reflections of weed in the top right hand corner seemed to provide balance. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/15 secs, f/22 at 119 mm.

Why I like gates and doors so much I don't know but I couldn't resist this shot, taken low with a wide-angle lens. I took two shots here, one with people coming through the gate and this one. On balance, I prefer this one for its simplicity and perhaps because I still cannot get my mind around having blurred figures in a shot. Again, in accordance with the rule of thirds, I placed the gate off-centre. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/4 secs, f/16 at 11mm.

The red tractor was too good to miss against the backdrop of the trees. Telephoto lens, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/13 secs, f/22 at 59mm with circular polariser.

Another portrait view to highlight the fence-post and fence on the right and more interesting cloud. Telephoto lens, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/6 secs, f/22 at 46mm with circular polariser.

I came across this pile of freshly cut logs and decided to take a low-down wide-angle shot. ISO 100, shutter speed 0.40 secs, f/16 at 11mm.

I couldn't resist this shot of an elderly couple relaxing on a bench under the trees. Telephoto lens, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/15 secs, f/22 with circular polariser.

Finally, this photograph of two figures on a bench has some lovely trees and great cloud formations. I decided to split the frame in two with the horizon, rather than the 'recommended' third/two-thirds approach because the sky was worth it! This was the only shot taken without a tripod. Telephoto lens, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/125 secs, f/16 at 25 mm with circular polariser.

Hopefully, this is a better collection of photographs than in the original, Spring collection. I feel that there is more variety and greater use of foreground than before and I have tried for much better composition. Roll on Autumn!

Steve McCurry - Retrospective

2010-07-31T15:29:00.000+02:00

There is an excellent photography exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery showing the work of American photo-journalist Steve McCurry. Billed as a 'UK exclusive' exhibition, it is on until 17th October. The link is http://www.bmag.org.uk/.

Steve McCurry has spent much of his career taking photographs in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and other countries in South-East Asia. The exhibition shows examples of his work over 30 years and is a mixture of portraits, landscapes and street scenes. Not everyone will have heard his name but I am sure that his photograph of an Afghan girl, taken in 1984, will be familiar to almost everyone. Taken in Peshawar, Pakistan and titled 'Afghan Girl in Nasir Bagh refugee camp', it shows a young girl of about 13 years of age with the most intensely green eyes, turning sideways towards the camera and wearing a red shawl over her head. The photograph was featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine and, consequently, became world famous.

One of the interesting features of the exhibition was a video, shot around 2002, showing Steve McCurry's search for this girl, nearly 17 years after the original photograph was taken. He didn't know her name but was aware that the Nasir Bagh refugee camp, which still existed then, was about to be demolished and its inhabitants scattered. After a long search, with the help of a local journalist, village elders, an FBI expert in facial recognition and experts who could match the features in the eye from the original photograph with that of the adult 'Afghan girl', he was able to track her down. She was married with a small child and, although her facial features had aged, she still had those amazing eyes.

Of course, Steve McCurry has been responsible for other wonderful photographs and this exhibition includes many of them. All his portraits were wonderful but I particularly liked 'Girl in Green Shawl, Peshawar ,2004'. It was interesting how he used such a shallow depth of field in many of his portraits so that the sharpness falls away quite quickly. One portrait that I found very disturbing was titled 'Young Boy, Churmazu, 2004' as it showed a young boy of about 6 or 7, from his tears clearly distressed, holding a gun to his head and looking directly into the camera. Whether it was a real gun or not I couldn't tell but I would have liked to know the story behind the photograph.

An amusing photograph, titled 'Tailor in Monsoon, Porbandar, India, 1983' showed a smiling man, up to his neck in flood water and carrying a sewing machine so that it appeared to be floating next to his head.

Steve McCurry's compositions and use of light and colour make this an exhibition to be highly recommended for those who can get to Birmingham. I know that I shall be re-visiting it several times.

Landscape Assignment 2 - one acre

2010-07-31T15:06:00.000+02:00

For this second assignment, where we were asked to consider and take 12 photographs in a relatively small area - one acre - I chose to visit a location ('Las Salinas' - 'la sal' means 'salt' in Spanish)) where once salt was produced by the evaporation of sea water. This has now been turned into a 'natural park' of wetland, vegetation and leisure trails.

The park covers many acres but I confined myself to a small sector. The challenge of the assignment was to achieve variety in the 12 shots but the additional challenge I set myself was to do this in an area which, by its very nature, is flat and contains no trees. It remains to be seen whether I have succeeded!

I made several visits to the park, around dawn and during the afternoon, both to consider possible subjects and to take the photographs. Clearly the light was different at these times of the day with that around dawn being very soft and then much harsher in the afternoon.

An overall impression of Las Salinas can be seen in photograph number one which is a panoramic shot obtained by stitching together 6 different shots using the Photomerge tool in Elements 7.

Clearly, the park extends way into the distance but the area I chose is in the foreground, bounded by the water on the left and that on the right.

Photograph number 2 is an early morning shot with an old white workshop and its reflection in one of the pools. In the distance can be seen the old village of Sancti Petri where tuna used to be processed before this activity moved down the coast to Barbate. The light here is quite soft being about half an hour after sunrise and I have chosen to reduce the amount of sky in the shot because of the lack of cloud making it rather uninteresting.

Number 3 is a shot of some of the very colourful vegetation which has grown up since the salt extraction ceased. This was taken during the afternoon and, again, there was no cloud cover hence I have eliminated any sky.

Number 4 is probably my favourite photograph of this assignment. Conscious of comments made by my tutor after my first assignment, that I needed to vary the height of my shots, I set my tripod very low to the ground and used a wide-angle lens to get this view to include both a strong foreground and some very interesting cloud cover. Taken just after dawn, the lighting is very soft and warm.

Number 5 is a dawn shot with the sun just creeping over the horizon. Yet again, I have left a narrow strip of sky with the emphasis on the warm colour reflected on the water and a strong foreground. The length of the shadows from the two poles would be much reduced later in the day, of course.

Photograph number 6 is the first of two close-up shots showing part of the weed cover on the water. (Actually, it is a shot cropped from a photograph of a much larger area).The relief is quite strong as the sun was low in the sky, it being about 30 minutes after dawn when I took this shot. I like the interesting swirls made by the weed and the whole looks very abstract.

This photograph (number 7) of the white building and very strong refection was perfect for a square frame. It could have been cropped even tighter but, despite the lack of cloud, I wanted to retain some sky on this occasion, and its reflection in the water, as a frame for the building.

Taken from the waters edge, and again quite low down, this photograph (8) gives another view of the vegetation in this area. It was taken shortly after dawn, hence the soft light. There is some cloud so I kept this in and I composed the shot to have the water diagonally across the frame.

This photograph shows some dried branches in the afternoon sun. It would be difficult to tell from the photograph how large, or small, the branches were without the little green ferns at the top and left of the frame.

Some nice colours in photograph number 10 caused by a layer of scum on a muddy area between the water and the bank. I chose a portrait framing as it seemed to produce a better balanced shot. .

Like photograph 4, the penultimate shot (number 11) was taken almost at ground level in order to capture both a strong foreground and the interesting cloud cover. I chose this shot because of the old post sticking out of the mud and decided to place it to the left of the frame so that I could show the central muddy area stretching into the distance.

Finally, this second close-up shot was taken from above, looking down on a couple of footprints in the dusty landscape. The footprints and the pieces of vegetation are supposed to balance each other in the frame.

Technical stuff

All the photographs for this assignment were taken in RAW using a tripod and, as suggested, with the camera set to Manual. I used a hand-held light-meter throughout rather than TTL metering and this worked well (apart from the time when I forgot to set the ISO setting on the meter to 100 to match that on the camera - fortunately I was using RAW and exposure bracketing so this wasn't too much of a problem).

Also, I had the tripod set at various heights and I was very grateful for 'Live View' for some of the very low level shots.

I used one of two lenses - either the Tokina wide-angle or Tamron 18 - 270mm telephoto depending on the shot.

All photos were taken using insect repellent!!

Information on each of the twelve photographs is as follows.

1. Panorama - all component frames at ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/80 secs using telephoto lens at 42mm.

2. White building/reflection - ISO 100, /f/22, shutter speed 1/13 secs using telephoto lens at 154mm.

3. Red ground cover - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/30 secs using telephoto lens at 84mm.

4. Low-down, building in distance - ISO 100, f/11, shutter speed 1/60 secs using wide-angle lens at 13mm.

5. Sunrise - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 0.50 secs using wide-angle lens at 11mm.

6. Slime - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 0.40 secs using telephoto lens at 46mm.

7. White building - square close-up - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/13 secs using telephoto lens at 218mm.

8. Shore - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/13 secs using wide angle lens at 11mm.

9. Small branches - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/30 secs using telephoto lens at 39mm.

10. Yellow mud - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/30 secs at 77mm using telephoto lens.

11. Wooden post - ISO 100, f/16, shutter speed 1/60 secs at 13mm using wide-angle lens.

12. Footprints - ISO 100, f/22, shutter speed 1/30 secs at 39mm using telephoto lens.

Final Comments

This has been a very interesting assignment in that it has made me think about taking unusual shots. I think that it would be a very good camera club assignment where people could be asked to take different shots in a very confined area over a period of an hour, say, and then compare them.

I have tried to vary the height of the shots although a higher perspective would have been nice but would have needed a ladder (although Charlie Waite (I think) does take one on his photo shoots!) as the ground was so flat.

Photo Exhibition in Vejer de la Frontera

2010-07-07T10:13:00.008+02:00

Yesterday, our camera group visited the charming hilltop village of Vejer de la Frontera to see an exhibition of photographs by Spanish photographer Pepe Gutierrez entitled "Chaouen, Tipos y Tipismos, en Azul" (roughly translated as "Chaouen, figures and local colour, in blue").

The exhibition was to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 'twinning' of Vejer in Spain with Chaouen in Morocco and comprised a collection of 52 photographs, nearly all with a very strong 'blue' theme.

The photographs can be seen on Flickr (his account name is 'Codigo de Luz') but I have reproduced, below, two of my favourites

This first shows the figure of an old woman walking away from the camera being accompanied by a young boy (grandson, great grandson?) who is holding her stick. The little boy is looking back towards the camera and this is what makes the shot, for me. I also love the texture of the cobblestones and the step in the foreground.

This second shot really draws the eye into the frame with the alleyway disappearing around a corner. This effect is emphasised by the water trail which follows the path downwards. A simple shot but very effective.

I would like to say that all the photographs in the exhibition were as good as the above but this wasn't the case. A few were in need of cropping, to a greater or lesser extent, to eliminate unnessessary distractions or just to give the subject greater impact and others showed the effects of being enlarged beyond their optimum size, resulting in distortion and halo effects. This was particularly the case with some close-up portraits where there were occasions, also, when the eyes were not sharply focussed.

However, all in all I enjoyed the exhibition and it was good to be able to discuss the photographs over a coffee, with the rest of the group. I enjoyed the coffee, too.

Dawn Shoot

2010-07-01T14:59:00.004+02:00

After several photo shoots in urban settings at a time of day when the light was rather harsh, I managed to persuade the local camera group that we should get up early and take some landscape shots around dawn, near the town of Alcala de los Gazules, on the edge of a national park.

Now dawn here in Southern Spain at this time of year is at a much more civilised time than in the UK, probably more than 2 hours earlier, at just after 7am. Even so, it proven almost impossible to get fellow club members to come along - only three of us made it in the end - but it was a very worthwhile exercise.

We got to our chosen location about 7am, probably about 15 minutes later than ideal, but were able to take some nice shots of the sunrise. The light certainly is much more interesting at that time of day and, on reviewing the photographs later, it reinforced what you read in books and magazines about how the human eye and the camera see the effects of light differently.

The above photo was taken with my wide-angle lens, just before the sun popped over the brow of the hill. An ND grad filter would have been a useful addition but, as I haven't got one yet, I had to make do without.

All the shots I took over the next 45 minutes, mainly with my telephoto lens, were using the Manual camera setting and a hand-held light meter. I decided to use exposure bracketing and this proved a sensible precaution. Unfortunately, many of my shots exhibited some 'flare', despite using a lens hood, and I presume that this was due to pointing the lens too close to the direction of the sun-rise.

The absence of some early morning clouds made this a less than perfect day for dawn shots, we made the best of it and tried to avoid large expanses of sky although here, with this 'portrait'

shot, I was quite happy to include some.

We then drove into Alcala and rewarded ourselves with the Andalucian breakfast, coffee with pan con tomate (toasted bread roll, olive oil, tomato and a pinch of salt) for me and pan con jamón (with ham instead of the tomato) for Les and Gill. After smugly congratulating ourselves on our early start, we explored the narrow streets of the town and walked to the church, taking photographs as we went.

All in all, it was a morning well spent and I felt that I thoroughly deserved my afternoon siesta.

Other photographs can be seen on my Flickr page (account name 'Citysnapper').

Chapter 2 - Light and its Measurement - continued

2010-06-28T15:45:00.004+02:00

Having received a helpful comment from Isabel about my previous blog concerning the use of a hand-held light meter with a circular polarising filter, I have investigated this further.

My initial thought was that it would be very difficult correcting for such a filter as this would be different depending upon the rotation of the filter i.e. how much the light was polarised. This turns out to be incorrrect although it is a common misconception, judging by various comments on internet forums. Apparently, the 'filter factor' (required exposure correction) does not vary with the rotation of the filter as this only affects the amount of polarized light allowed through the lens, not the total amount of light per se. In this respect it acts like a neutral density filter which limits the amount of light passing throough the lens.

The actual 'filter factor' will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. For my Jessops circular polariser, the filter factor is 3.0. A useful chart that I found on the internet (www.dpfwiw.com/filters.htm) indicated that a filter factor of 3.0 was equivalent to -1 2/3 stops which means that, once I have taken a light reading with the hand-held meter, I must open the aperture 1 2/3 stops more than the reading shown (or reduce the shutter speed by the same amount). I would have liked to show the chart here but I was unable to cut and paste it from the web site).

Having tried this out by applying the suggested correction, it seems to work fine.

Red can

2010-06-26T12:59:00.003+02:00

Red can
Originally uploaded by Citysnapper

Here in southern Andalucia, the current economic problems hitting Spain have been particularly acute with nearly 30% unemployment in the Cadiz province. As well as Cadiz itself, working-class towns like Chiclana and Puert Real seem very down-at-heel at the moment.

A recent visit to the nearby town of Puerto Real with the local photographic group was rather depressing, although we were frequently stopped by proud inhabitants urging us to photograph this church or that monument. Rather than the inside of one of the churches, this red Cruzcampo beer can caught my eye. It had been placed outside a church and I liked the juxtaposition and the texture of the stone.

Chapter 2 - Light and its Measurement

2010-06-16T18:40:00.003+02:00

As the heading states, this chapter is all about light and its measurement and I like the suggestion of thinking "of the landscape of light and sky as a large studio". The text is clearly written with an eye on the UK weather and the need to take advantage of bright and sunny days when possible. Being here in southern Spain for the duration of this chapter, I am going to have the opposite problem, that of finding days when it is not bright and sunny!

It is no coincidence that this area is called the 'Costa de la Luz', the coast of light, but the downside is that it can be very harsh for taking landscape photographs apart from at the beginning and end of the day. Fortunately, being further south and an hour ahead of the UK, dawn is at a much more 'friendly' time, currently around 7am, so I intend to take advantage of this as much as possible.

I have had slight concerns about how much of the course material is geared towards film photography, as opposed to digital. This was also the case in the Level 1 'Art of Photography' course but, I understand, this has now been re-written. Clearly the course material was written at a time when digital was in its infancy and the majority of students would still be using film. I have no evidence to support this, apart from the explosion in the sale of digital cameras and the talk of film manufacture being reduced, but I suspect that a big majority of current students use digital cameras and process their photographs via computer. Perhaps the time has come for the material on the Landscape course to be re-written.

As an example, within Project 11 - 'the colour of daylight', there are several pages about colour temperature and colour filters which can be used to make corrections. At the end of several pages, the final sentence reads -

"With digital cameras, colour temperature corrections can be made in image editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop, limiting the need for a wide range of colour correction filters."

Also, I have pointed out to my tutor that the chart on Page 64 concerning the mired scale (micro reciprocal degree) is inaccurate in five of the first six figures given for the mired value of particular degrees Kelvin. I only know this because the first value on the chart was clearly wrong (dividing one million by 10,000 cannot make 56!) so I checked the rest (sad, I know). It would appear that this had not been raised before and, in any case, was not considered that important. I shall not pay it any more attention.

Measuring Light

I was unsure in this section, on Page 70, whether we were being advised to use Manual exposure mode rather than shutter or aperture priority (and it appears that this is the case) but that we should also use a hand-held light meter rather than rely on TTL metering.

As I don't own a hand-held light meter, I have borrowed one from a friend who runs the local camera club here and I have been getting familiar with it prior to doing the next projects. I was puzzled for a while about why the photographs that I had taken using the readings from the light meter were consistently under-exposed compared to those taken using TTL readings. Then it came to me; I still had my circular polarising filter attached to the lens!

Question. Can you use a circular polarising filter whilst using incident light readings rather than TTL metering? How do you know what exposure compensation to use i.e. how much do you open up the aperture to compensate for having the filter attached to the lens? I'm going to have to think about this.

Reflections on Assignment 1 Tutor Report

2010-06-07T18:56:00.003+02:00

Well, I received my tutor's report today and it provided a lot of food for thought. The underlying message, although not stated in these terms, was "plenty of room for improvement", and I can only but agree with this assessment. It has reinforced for me that I should not submit work that I believe to be sub-standard and, were I in the UK at present, I would return to the scene of the crime and re-shoot, but this will have to wait until later in the summer.

The learning points from the report can be summarised as follows:

1. "What's my subject?" This should be clear for the viewer without it having to be explained.

2. Foreground, foreground, foreground! Too many of my shots were 'flat' and lacked strong foreground interest.

3. Make sure the foreground is in focus as, what foreground there was, often appeared out-of-focus. Presumably I need to be more careful with the f/stop that I choose in order to increase the depth of field and focus a third of the way into the frame.

4. Vary the height of the shot, depending on the subject. All the shots submitted were at the same height and more shots towards ground level, particularly with the wide-angle lens, would have varied the view and helped tackle the 'missing foreground' issue.

5. Make more of reflections when taking water shots.

6. Use people (or something!) to give scale and context where this isn't obvious.

7. Pay attention to the 'rule of thirds'. Although I do try and do this, you wouldn't know it from looking at the offending photographs.

I will endeavour to raise my game for the next assignment.

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

2010-05-30T13:10:00.006+02:00

During our recent journey by car from the UK, through France, to the south of Spain, we spent two nights in Bilbao, in a hotel overlooking the Guggenheim Museum. Nothing that I had read or seen about the building quite prepared me for the reality - the size, the construction, the sheer feat of imagination by architect Frank Gehry. It is an absolutely fabulous piece of architecture - of art - and a photographer's delight.

Wherever you look, and from whatever angle, there is something interesting. The reflections from the titanium cladding change during the day so it is never the same. The above photograph is the one which makes the building look like a ship, but even this does not include it all as it extends to the left underneath the road bridge.

The angles created by the steel and glass panels make some wonderful compositions and these materials really complement the titanium panels. Below, part of the section above the main entrance shows this well and the various reflections add to the interest.

I had to include this iconic shot of the museum (below) from one of the side streets which shows the flower sculpture by Jeff Koons, in the shape of a dog, in front of the main entrance.

Unfortunately, it was not permissible to take photographs within the building but, be in no doubt, the interior does not disappoint. The heart of the museum is the atrium, from which all the galleries lead. Every one of the walls, pillars and glass panels are curved to a greater or lesser extent.

There is always a danger that a building of such brilliance will totally overshadow the art works within. However, the museum does contain some excellent art. The long gallery referred to above (the one that extends underneath the road bridge) has a series of steel installations by American artist Richard Serra which are, at the same time, both enormous and claustrophobic. The Anish Kapoor collection, recently seen at Royal Academy in London, is now at the Guggenheim and there is also an exhibition of the work of Robert Rauchenberg.

All in all the visit was a great experience as was discovering the city of Bilbao. Both the city and the museum are highly recommended.

Landscape Assignment 1 - the season

2010-05-24T14:45:00.019+02:00

This first assignment on the OCA Landscape course asked us to produce 12 photographs which captured the feel of the current season (in this case Spring). This exercise will be repeated throughout the course so that each of the four seasons will be covered.

As I am likely to spend part of duration of the course in the UK and part in Spain, the majority is likely to be in the UK and so I decided to make my chosen location there. Therefore, I have taken the photographs for this assignment in and around the National Trust property of Nymans Gardens in East Sussex (which is close to Brighton and our grandchildren).

The twelve photographs were taken over a couple of visits with conditions ranging from sunny to cloudy. I used my Canon EOS 50D digital camera and a mixture of lenses - Tamron 18 - 270mm 3.5 - 6.3 zoom lens, Tokina SD 11-16 f/2.8 DX wide angle lens and Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens. All shots taken with the Tamron and Tokina lenses were with a tripod and ISO 100. The Canon 50mm shots were handheld at ISO 400.

The first photograph (Canon lens) shows budding branches in the foreground and green fields and trees in the middle distance.

The stone construction gives the shot some balance. The sky isn't very interesting so I cropped the photograph to limit it. The branch coming into the frame top right is a bit intrusive. Taken at f/16 and shutter speed of 1/100 seconds at 50mm.

The second photograph, taken with the wide-angle lens, shows a woodland path winding down

a hill. As well as the new growth on the trees there is evidence of last years brown leaves both along the path and in the woods. Taken at f/9 and shutter speed of 1/15 seconds at 11mm.

The third shot shows a group of trees and clumps of dafodils, for me one of the early signs of Spring.

In this composition, the use of a hot-shoe spirit-level was very useful in capturing the correct incline and, as can be seen, the trees and flower stems are pretty vertical. I wanted to make sure that the main clump of daffodils was placed in accordance with the rule of thirds. Taken with the Tamron zoom lens at f/9 with a shutter speed of 1/15 seconds at 65mm.

In this fourth photo, I have tried to frame the old house and out-buildings with the branch of the tree and the slope of the hill. Ideally, the tree would have been slightly further to the right

but this would have involved the inclusion of some distracting vegetation to the left. The large expanse of grass contains many yellow dandelions, another distinctive Spring flower. Again taken with the Tamron lens at f/9 and shutter speed 1/40 seconds at 55mm.

This is the first of four photographs in portrait perspective and it

shows the close up of a small dried stream bed containing primroses and a variety of grasses and ferns. This type of shot clearly lends itself to portrait rather than landscape and I am pleased with the result. Taken with the zoom lens at f/9 and shutter speed of 1/5 seconds at 77mm.

The sixth photograph is another where I have tried to use the branches of a tree to make a frame within a frame. Here, the branches at the top (not green this time!) form the top of

the frame with the two trees as the sides. The figure in the distance is captured within the inner frame. The foreground is bothersome, however. I think that I should have cropped the bottom to remove traces of the wooden fence but I do like that clump of daffodils! A handheld shot with the Canon 50mm lens at f/16 and shutter speed of 1/60 seconds.

I took a number of photographs of bluebells and there were many with a greater concentration than here but I chose this composition for no other reason than I like it and it is very typical of the bluebell woods at Nymans. The contrast in colour between the blue and the green is always attractive but there are some other splashes of different coloured leaves in the top right hand corner, for instance. Taken with the Tamron lens at f/22 with a shutter speed of 0.40 seconds at 70mm.

This is one of my favourite photographs of this assignment because I like the composition with the little wooden bridge almost concealed by the overhanging branches. I deliberately included the branches in the foreground to add balance to the composition and this seems to me another example of where a portrait perspective works really well.

Here, I used the Tamron zoom lens at f/22 with an exposure time of 2.5 seconds at 100mm.

I came upon this little house on the edge of the Nymans estate and it seemed to me that it was waking from its winter slumber. Although it was surrounded by trees showing plenty of new growth, there was no obvious sign of plant life nearby. Hopefully this will appear as the year progresses - we will see. I placed the house to the right of the frame so that the path would lead

into it. This photograph was taken with the Tamron lens at f/22 with an exposure time of 0.5 seconds at 42mm focal length.

Photograph number ten is another portrait shot, this time from an elevated position, with a tree stump in the foreground and a slope containing bluebells and primroses, leading down to a grass meadow with trees behind. I have included a greater percentage of sky here because there are

some interesting formations which add to the composition. Taken with the zoom lens at f/22, shutter speed 0.30 seconds at 25mm focal length.

The penultimate photograph is a little intriguing and I have included it as the obvious track across the grass meadow draws the eye to the edge of the wood and the boundary fence with no apparent gate.

Again, the hot shoe spirit level has helped to maintain the elevation from the left to the right of the frame. Taken with the Tamron lens at f/9 and exposure time of 1/15 seconds at 130mm.

The final photograph is perhaps my favourite because I love the shallow depth of field produced using the Canon 50mm lens at f/1.8. Here, the blossom typical of Nymans Gardens at this time of year is captured using this lens with a shutter speed of 1/8000 seconds. Both the foreground

and background are out of focus with only a narrow part of the middle ground really sharp.

I had wanted to take a photograph of what has become one of the new sights of the Spring in the UK - field upon field of bright yellow oil seed rape - but was unable to do so. I hope that the above selection fulfills the brief of the assignment. I shall be returning to Nymans Gardens in the summer for the next seasons photographs and look forward to seeing what changes have taken place.

Landscape Project 7 - figures in a landscape

2010-05-24T14:43:00.008+02:00

This project highlights the importance of figures in a landscape. I have chosen three photographs to illustrate this point.

The first was taken in Bilbao on a long flight of steps which were designed to be part of Frank Gehry's fabulous Guggenheim Museum. The staircase connects the road bridge above, with the promenade which runs in front of the museum. I was out before breakfast; before the crowds and before the light became too harsh and I spotted the potential of the staircase. All I needed was an early morning walker on their way to work and, eventually, he arrived!

Without the solitary figure, the shot would have lacked some focus and the scale of the construction would not have been obvious.

The second was taken at Nymans Gardens in East Sussex and shows three small figures

in the distance. They not only add a little colour to the scene but their attire gives some indication of the weather connditions and shows that, rather than being a shot of a private estate, it is an area open to the public.

The final photograph was taken in Trujillo, in Extramadura, Spain. It is the main square (Plaza Mayor) in the centre of town. There are two figures in the square, both apparently tourists and

their presence adds extra interest and information about the time of day (as all the locals are in the shade taking their lunch or having a siesta).

Landscape Project 5 - interacting subjects

2010-05-24T14:41:00.006+02:00

The photographs for this project were taken around the lighthouse at Cape Trafalgar on the Costa de la Luz in southern Spain. It was a scorching hot day (about 30 degrees) and the light was very harsh although, for the purposes of this project, that was not a particular problem, although some clouds would have helped considerably. This distant view places the lighthouse within its general surroundings.

I used my Tokina 11 to 18 mm wide angle lens at f/22 to ensure a full depth of field and took a selection of shots as I approached and circled the lighthouse.

I took a mixture of portrait and landscape shots so that the foreground was more in evidence. Clearly the nature of the main subject i.e. the lighthouse, lends itself to a portrait aspect.

This shot was cropped to reduce the amount of rather uninteresting sky.

This photograph was taken from directly below the outcrop on which the lighthouse is situated so the foreground is more dominant.

Moving around about 45 degrees produced this low viewpoint from a rock-strewn beach. I placed the lighthouse towards the left of the frame and used the small stone building on the right for balance. I tried to ensure that the beach was also a prominent part of the shot.

Finally, this is the shot from the top of the outcrop, at the foot of the lighthouse. I took the photograph with the lighthouse central, for symmetry, but decided to crop it slightly because of some (even more) unsightly fencing on the right hand side.

I am sure that, with some cloud formations, I would have composed these photographs with a greater proportion of sky but I tried to create a range of compositions using angle and a variety of foreground features.

Technically, my use of a polariser with the wide-angle lens was probably a mistake as this led to uneven colour in the sky with some areas intensely blue. I understand that this is a common problem when shooting at less than 30mm focal length - and I was using 11mm (or 16mm for a full frame camera). This wasn't such a problem with the photographs in portrait mode, though.

Landscape Project 2 - horizontal vs vertical

2010-05-24T14:39:00.005+02:00

This project is designed to see how well a vertical composition can work in landscape photography which is basically seen as horizontal. I have taken six pairs of photographs, some which show that a vertical composition can be as good, if not better than, a horizontal one. Some, however, don't work for me.

In this first pair, taken from the elevated vantage point of Devils Dyke in East Sussex, is one of the successes. The horizontal shot, taken with a wide-angle lens, is a broad panorama which includes a distant farm, farm track, hillside and foreground. By taking a much tighter shot with a vertical perspective, the eye is drawn along the track to the farm buildings (fortuitously following a van in this case). I think that both compositions work equally well in their own way.

The second pair, also from Devils Dyke, is not so successful, in my view. The horizontal wide angle view includes a group of buildings towards the left and I tried to balance these by including the remains of a coloured kite which had been caught in the trees. The vertical view, although showing the kite in greater detail, doesn't have such balancing elements and is rather boring.

The third pair, taken with my Tamron zoom lens, show a woodland path leading into the distance and were taken with a zoom lens. Personally, I prefer the vertical shot as this is able to capture more of the trees on either side of the path and this makes for a better composition.

The fourth pair is of a small bridge on a lake within the grounds of Nymans Woods in East Sussex. The bridge is clearly the focal point and I think that both perspectives work as there is sufficient interest surrounding it whichever is used. The inclusion of more foliage in the foreground of the vertical shot certainly helps to give it more balance than would have been achieved without it. The shots were taken with a zoom lens.

The next pair of photographs were taken with a zoom lens in the Spanish town of Trujillo (home of the Conquistador, Pissaro). I took the horizontal shot to capture the red poppies which were captured by the early morning light but the vertical shot is much better even though it doesn't highlight the poppies so much. The architecture and the narrow passageway make the shot.

Finally, this pair of wide-angle photographs were taken along the canal near central Birmingham. I don't particularly like either photograph but it seems clear to me that the reflections in the water are an important part of the composition and the horizontal perspective is much stronger here.

The conclusion that I draw from this project is that, although the horizontal perspective may be the 'norm', there are many occasions where a vertical composition is as good as it, if not better. It may be necessary to change focal length or the angle of view but a vertical composition should always be kept in mind.

Reflections on 'Art of Photography' course

2010-03-23T00:13:00.007+01:00

Now that I have completed the course (with the formal assessment to come in July), I want to draw together some of my thoughts on the course and on how I think that my photography has changed over the last nine months.

When I enrolled for the course, I had limited experience of photography, other than the 'point and shoot' kind using fully automatic camera settings to capture mainly holiday snaps. Although many of the technical aspects of handling an SLR camera I have studied outside TAOP course, the compositional elements of a photograph and the use of light and colour, have opened up a whole new dimension in photography.

I chose a distance learning course because I was living in Spain, and did so for the majority of the course. The presentation of materials was generally good but the course content was in need of updating as there was still a strong emphasis on film (I understand that a new version of the text was introduced late in 2009). The tutor system worked for me and it was particularly helpful that my tutor, Diane Walkey, was flexible about assessing my assignments via my blog. I didn't make enough use of the OCA website and forums and this is something that I intend to remedy on the Level 2 'Landscape' course on which I have now enrolled.

I was very fortunate that a local camera club was set up in my area of Spain (under the leadership of Les Rowe) and this has been an excellent way of learning from an experienced photographer and engaging with like-minded enthusiasts. As well as technical meetings, we have had practical portrait sessions and been on numerous 'field trips', all thoroughly enjoyable. It was initially because of this group that I opened a Flickr account (as 'Citysnapper') as a way for us to share our photographs and Les also encouraged us to enter a photo competition for foreign residents which was held by the local council. As mentioned in a previous blog (28th December 2009), I was fortunate enough to win this competition.

We returned to the UK in November in order to spend the winter in Brighton and I was hoping to join the Brighton Camera Club but, unfortunately, they had had so many new members wanting to join that they had had to put a limit on their numbers and I had to be wait-listed. This was a disappointment, as regular contact with fellow photographers, particularly those with far more experience, is very helpful.

Use of books and magazines has been very important in developing my skills as a photographer. The absence of an English bookshop in our area meant that I relied a lot on Amazon but I decided to subscribe to a couple of monthly photo magazines which could be sent from the UK. These were Photoplus, a magazine for Canon users, and Practical Photography. Both have been extremely helpful and interesting, particularly for the technical aspects of photography.

Of the books that I have bought, the most relevant to the course has been Michael Freeman's 'The Photographers Eye' but my favourite remains 'Within the Frame - The Journey of Photographic Vision' by David duChemin, about which I wrote an earlier blog (10th October 2009). I came across 'Light: Science and Magic - An Introduction to Photographic Lighting' by Hunter, Biver and Fuqua whilst working on the lighting sections of the course and found it very helpful. Finally, Scott Kelby's 'Digital Photography' books have been fun to dip into.

I have enjoyed looking at photographs, both in books and magazines. Tom Beck's book about David Seymour (Chim), published by Phaidon, is excellent and I really like Seymour's photos. I wrote a blog piece on 14th February this year about the puzzle that is his 1936 photograph, originally titled 'Woman at Land Reform Meeting, Estramadura, Spain' but which has been shown also with a title 'Air Raid Over Barcelona, 1939'. A recent collection of the photos appearing in 'Life' magazine over the years is another favourite.

One of the drawbacks about where we have been living in Spain, is the lack of access to photographic exhibitions. However, since coming back to spend the winter in Brighton, I have been able to go to various exhibitions. I wrote about the William Eggleston exhibition in a blog piece on 14th February this year but others which stand out were the John Baldessari 'Pure Beauty' exhibition at the Tate Modern - very quirky, highly imaginative and enjoyable - and the exhibition of 150 years of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh 'Where Three Dreams Cross' at the Whitechapel Gallery - the latter two countries photographs being the most unfamiliar.

So. How has my photography changed over the duration of the course? On the technical side, I am now much more aware of how an SLR works and I always use the 'creative' modes, mainly aperture priority. I always shoot in RAW and use Elements 7 (and RAW plug-in) for any post-production. One of the things that I need to do is to become more familiar with the use of Photoshop and I will start to address this in April when I am attending an RPS weekend seminar in Bath.

On the more compositional side of photography, I have learned a lot from the course, particularly about balance within the frame, use of colour and lighting. I have been far more comfortable taking photographs of landscapes,buildings and urban architecture than 'people' shots, probably because I am not extrovert enough to push myself forward. I also have issues with taking photographs of children (other than our grandchildren) because of current sensitivities within society. This is probably much easier for women than for men but not always. I think of the wonderful photographs of children taken by David Seymour, for instance, and wonder whether he would be able to take some of these today, were he alive.

I have appplied to have my 'Art of Photography' work assessed in July and I have now received the materials for the Level 2 'Landscape' course.

Assignment 5:applying the techniques of illustration and narrative

2010-03-09T19:35:00.029+01:00

For this, the final assignment of the Art of Photography course, we were asked to imagine that we were about to illustrate a story for a magazine. I have chosen to present a picture narrative titled "The urban regeneration of central Birmingham". All photographs were taken with my (new) Canon 50D SLR and one of the following lenses - Tamron 18 to 270mm telephoto, Tokina 11 to 16mm wide angle or Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens.

THE URBAN REGENERATION OF CENTRAL BIRMINGHAM

The ICC - iconic heart of the new Birmingham

This photograph shows the canal side entrance to the very impressive International Convention Centre which houses Symphony Hall, amongst other venues. For many people, this building exemplifies the new Birmingham and the stroke of genius was to include within it the main walkway from the city centre to the new canal side restaurants, bars, shops and office developments, thus incorporating it into the daily lives of thousands of people. Reflexions of some of the modern canal side buildings can be seen in the glass. (Tokina lens, hand held, f/11, shutter speed 1/60 seconds, ISO 400, focal length 11mm).

Just waiting for the developers

Careful restoration breathes new life

The story of the regeneration of Birmingham is about the vision of a few individuals who saw the opportunity of changing the face of a city for so long associated with, increasingly reducing, heavy industry and car production, by utilising old warehouses and factories, like those shown on the left, and redeveloping them into modern apartments, restaurants, bars and offices. By providing such facilities in the centre of the city, it thus became a flourishing and vibrant location for those who moved there and for visitors (both recreational and business) and for office workers. (Left picture:Tamron lens, tripod, ISO 100, f/11, 1/15 seconds exposure at 18mm. Right: Tokina lens, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, 1/125 seconds exposure at 11mm).

Imaginative architecture from the seventies is retained

There was still room for retaining some of the seventies iconic architecture like this listed signal box located at the entrance to New Street Station. (Tokina, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, 1/100 secs shutter speed at 16mm).

The ICC welcomes all

But the old Bingley Hall was replaced by the International Convention Centre, whose interior, although twenty years old, is strikingly modern with its glass, steel and marble construction. The pedestrian walkway, mentioned in the cover photograph, is illustrated here. (Tokina, hand-held, ISO400, f/5.6, shutter speed 1/80 secs at 11mm)

From warehouse to luxury apartment

Opening up the canal side

Much of the new development has centred around the canal system to the west of the city centre, turning this once bleak industrial setting into an extremely attractive place to live. Some of the new apartments have been built within the shells of old factories and warehouses, like Sherbourne Wharf on the left (once a warehouse of Fellows, Morton and Clayton), whereas others are brand new, purpose built structures like King Edwards Wharf, seen here on the right. (Left: Tamron, tripod, ISO 100, f/11, shutter speed 1/25 secs at 65mm. Right: Tamron, tripod, ISO 100, f/11, shutter speed 1/8 secs at 55mm).

Some established pubs have been forced to close

With the opening-up of the canal side area, pubs like the Fiddle and Bone, which relied on its music license in particular, were forced to close under pressure from influential residents in the newly opened apartments, seen here reflected in the windows of the pub. The interior looks as though the pub is still in business with its tables and chairs and even beer pumps on the bar but the flaking paintwork outside tells a different story. The pub has been closed for more than 7 years. (Tamron, hand-held, ISO 100, f/11, 0.30 secs shutter speed at 18mm).

The 'Clinton Pub' flourishes

On the other hand, a number of pubs have flourished because of their canal side location like the Moat House, a very popular establishment close to the National Indoor Arena (NIA) and National Sealife Centre. Then President Bill Clinton had a drink on the balcony of the Moat House during a visit to the city and the pub is now known locally as 'The Clinton Pub'. (Tokina, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, shutter speed 1/50 secs at 11mm).

Public Art - Gormley's 'Iron Man'

Apartment complexes find space for art

A great deal of public art has been commissioned during the regeneration and placed at strategic places around the city. On the left, Anthony Gormley's Iron Man stands at the top of New Street with the recently refurbished Town Hall in the background. As well as public art, many of the more prestigious apartment complexes have provided space for more up and coming artists like Laurence Quinn. ( Left: Tamron, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, shutter speed 1/30 secs at 35mm. Right: Canon, hand-held, f/1.8, shutter speed 1/8000 secs at 50mm).

More miles of canals than Venice

Many of the buildings around Brindley Place are now widely recognised, like this Venetian palazzo style office building which dominates the canal side. (Tokina, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, shutter speed 1/30 secs at 11 mm).

Development - a constant process

The story of Birmingham's regeneration has not finished and is likely to continue for years to come. The amazing 'Cube' is nearing completion, adding more luxury apartments and offices next to the Mailbox complex. The building of a new library is scheduled for completion in 2013, the year that Birmingham hopes to be granted the accolade of European City of Culture - and who would say that this wouldn't be a well-deserved honour. (Tokina, hand-held, ISO 400, f/11, shutter speed 1/160 secs at 11mm).

Reflections on Assignment 5

This has been a thoroughly enjoyable assignment and I am pleased with the subject chosen (thanks to my wife for suggesting it!). There was no shortage of possible photographs and it was very difficult to choose only 13 of those which I did take.

In deciding on the 'cover picture', I wanted the subject to be one that is considered by many to be the iconic building of the new Birmingham, the International Convention Centre, and to choose a view which juxtaposed the external lines of this structure with relections of the sky and other new buildings which make up the canal side development. If I had to choose just one photograph to illustrate the whole theme, it would have to be this one.

I enjoyed the opportunity of using different lenses - wide-angle, telephoto and 50mm prime - during this assignment and different weather conditions from day to day added to the challenge. I am glad that I was able to take the ICC shot on a cloudless day because the reflections and blue sky make the photo.

Project 64: evidence of action

2010-03-01T20:15:00.003+01:00

As 'evidence of action', I have chosen this photograph of a broken vase, together with the broken pieces and the tube of super-glue which will be used to mend it.

I arranged both the broken pieces and the tube of glue in such a way that it directs the viewers attention to the location of the break in the vase.

The shot was taken with my Canon 50DSLR and Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens. ISO 400 (should have been 100 as I was using a tripod!), f/2.8 and shutter speed of 1/20 seconds at 15mm.

Project 63: a narrative picture essay

2010-03-01T18:26:00.018+01:00

In this project we are asked to tell a story in a set of pictures. I have chosen to describe the making of a vegetable pasta dish, as seen below.

1.Mixed vegetable penne

2.Fresh vegetables are essential

3.Ingredients such as garlic, basil and capers add interesting flavours

4.Always use fresh tomatoes for the sauce

5.The ingredients are chopped and ready for cooking

6.Even the discarded parts of the vegetables make an attractive picture!

7.The onions are fried in olive oil until soft

8.The other vegetables are added to the pan and the mixture allowed to cook for 15 minutes

9.The fresh tomato sauce is added to the vegetables and the mixture left to simmer for 20 minutes

10. Serve on a bed of penne and garnish with fresh basil.

Properties

All photographs were taken using a Canon 50DSLR with either Tamron 18 - 270mm lens or Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens. All shots were taken in Raw,using a tripod and ISO 100 with the majority using only natural light. Aperture priority mode was used throughout.

1. f/5.6, shutter speed 1.30 seconds at 27mm focal length. Tamron.

2. f/4, shutter speed 1.30 seconds at 42mm focal length. Tamron.

3. f/4, shutter speed 1 second at 32mm focal length. Tamron.

4. f/5.6, shutter speed 1 second at 70mm focal length. Tamron.

5. f/5.6, shutter speed 1 second at 77mm focal length. Tamron.

6. f/5.6, shutter speed 1.30 seconds at 12mm. Tokina wide-angle.

7. f/5.6, shutter speed 1 second at 21mm. Tamron

8. f/5.6, shutter speed 1.60 seconds at 84mm. Tamron.

9. f/5.6, shutter speed 1 second at 25 mm. Tamron.

10. f/5.6, shutter speed 0.80 seconds at 35 mm. Tamron.

David Seymour 'puzzle'

2010-02-14T23:49:00.003+01:00

I have been puzzled for some time by the photo by David Seymour (known as 'Chim') entitled 'Land Distribution Meeting in Estremadura, 1936' which became one of his most famous Spanish Civil War shots. It shows a group of women, mostly with babes in arms, looking up as if to the heavens. Strangely, as indicated in the text book 'Photography: A Concise History' by Ian Jeffrey, and elsewhere, this photograph is sometimes called 'Air Raid Over Barcelona, 1938' (or, sometimes, 1936).

I have been unable to unravel the reason for the use of this picture to depict two different events in completely different parts of Spain or whether David Seymour himself revised the title to that of 'Air Raid Over Barcelona', although he was based in Barcelona in 1938. It may well be the case of a photograph of a lesser known event being used as a stock photograph of something more dramatic i.e. an air-raid. It does seem to me unlikely that the women would stand passively by with their children should an actual air-raid be taking place.

I will continue to try and unravel the puzzle.

William Eggleston Exhibition

2010-02-14T19:27:00.003+01:00

I have recently visited an exhibition of recent photographs by William Eggleston at the Victoria Miro Gallery, London, entitled 21st Century. Tennessee born William Eggleston is considered to be one of the most influential photographers of the last half-century and has been called "the father of colour photography" from a time when black-and-white was the norm.

As I walked around this exhibition of twenty-two new photographs, I was trying to understand what was so special about this body of work. Certainly the normal rules of photography, as taught so far on the Art of Photography course, didn't seem to apply as the compositions were, in many cases, 'unbalanced' and horizons were often not straight. One could also imagine someone taking a lot of hurried snaps of random subjects and coming up with the same results.

However, it was clear that a great deal of thought had, of course, gone into these photographs and their apparent randomness was the result of a keen eye for the unusual view of everyday objects and situations. I particularly liked a 2004 photograph of Santa Claus apparently floating above a Memphis street but, in fact, stuck to a car windscreen which was photographed from inside the car. Also, a 1999 photograph of a spoon on a wooden windowsill in Kentucky.

Many of the photographs displayed some interesting colour combinations and there were a lot of abstract compositions like that of the ice bags inside a freezer and the soap pattern on the windscreen in a car wash.

All in all a very thought-provoking exhibition.

Assignment 4 - applying lighting techniques

2010-01-10T18:55:00.008+01:00

In this, the penultimate assignment of the Art of Photography course, we were asked to draw together different lighting techniques and apply them to one object.

As was stated in the course material, a number of people are not particularly turned-on by this type of photography (and I am one of them, unfortunately) but I appreciate how important it is to understand how to use different types of lighting, singly and in combination. Having said that, I found the assignment very challenging and, maybe because of the subject that I chose (a cute and shiny, but not very colourful glazed squirrel), sometimes it was difficult to allocate a photograph into one of the four categories suggested - shape, texture, form and colour.

The lighting that I used was one, or a combination of the following. If it appears very 'Heath Robinson' , this is because it is! No two lighting combinations are the same in the chosen photographs.

- natural light from a small window

- spot-light diffused with a piece of white kitchen towel

- small led cell torch

- Canon Speedlite 430 EX11 flashgun

I used a tripod and cable release for all the shots which were all in RAW using a Canon 1000D SLR and Tamron 18 to 270mm lens. All shots were taken in Aperture Priority mode at f/11 and ISO 100. I used a white background throughout.

The results are as follows:

Shape

This is the aspect which involves the edges of an object - its outline.

This photograph was taken in a darkened room using only 'bounced flash' from the Canon Speedlite, fixed to the camera. Exposure time was 30 seconds. As no other light source was used, the shape of the object is very clearly defined against the white background.

This second shot used a combination of a light source behind the object (led light torch) and light from the window to the left. Exposure time was 6 seconds. The lighting at the back, and lack of frontal lighting, ensures that there is little detail apart from the shape of the object.

Form

This shows how three-dimensional an object is.

This photograph was taken using two artificial light sources. The main light was the diffused spotlight placed slightly above and at 45 degrees to the left in front of the object. The secondary light source was the led torch from the right hand side at the level of the object. Exposure time was 10 seconds. Here, the shadows and reflections combine to indicate the volume of the object.

In the second shot in this category, the only light source in the darkened room was the led torch at the left-hand side and level with the object. Exposure time was 4 seconds. Whilst there wasn't as much illumination as the previous photograph, with the result that there aren't as many reflections, there is a clear indication of the depth of the object.

Texture

Texture is "the quality of surface detail". With my chosen object, there were a number of things that could be highlighted - the shiny glaze, the slight cracking of the surface and the dust particles on the base. I adjusted my lighting to bring out these aspects.

By using the diffused tungsten spotlight as the main light, placed next to the camera, and the led torch to the right of the object at the same level, the glaze, in particular, shows up very well. The exposure for this shot was 8 seconds.

Using only the light from the window to the left of the object, I was able to emphasise the fine surface cracking and the layer of dust on the base. As there were no other sources of light, the exposure time was 30 seconds.

Colour

Perhaps because I had chosen this particular object, it was difficult to decide how to show the colour "as strongly as possible". In the end, I settled on the following as giving a 'true' colour representation, although there were other shots which made the object appear more 'vibrant' (and this could be achieved, also, by adjustments in the Camera Raw Adobe plug-in to Photoshop Elements).

This first photograph was illuminated by the diffused spotlight placed next to the camera and by the light from the window to the left. Exposure time was 6 seconds. I reduced the exposure setting by half a stop in Photoshop.

The second was taken with the light from the diffused led torch on the right-hand side and bounced flash from the Canon Speedlite, mounted on the camera. I increased the exposure setting by half a stop in Photoshop.

Conclusion

More that any of the other assignments, I am unsure whether the photographs taken are suitable to show what is required. I guess I could have chosen a different object to study - one with more colour, for instance - but the one chosen did have its challenges in terms of the glazed surface. Despite the absence of 'professional lighting, I think that I was able to use what I had available in an imaginative way and I now have a much better appreciation of lighting as a subject and of how challenging it can be.

Project 54 - outdoors at night

2010-01-08T18:03:00.006+01:00

For this project about low-level lighting, I used my new Tokina 10 - 16mm wide-angle lens which I had bought for me for Christmas.It was (obviously) necessary to use a tripod (with shutter-release cable) because of the long exposure times needed and I shot in RAW (as always), in manual mode at f/16 throughout with ISO 100 and with mirror lock-up.

The photographs show various scenes along the sea-front in Brighton and in the city centre.

Shutter speed 10 seconds at 16mm. I adjusted the white balance to 3750K in post production.

This hotel front, with car tail-light trails in the foreground, had an exposure time of 15 secs at 16mm and adjusted white balance of 5150K.

Another photograph where I captured car tail-light trails was this one looking along the road which runs along the promenade. Exposure time of 4 secs @16mm with white balance of 5450K.

This 20 second exposure, at 16mm, has a number of interesting lighting effects from traffic travelling in both directions. Adjusted white balance of 4350K.

The shot of Brighton pier needed an exposure of 30 seconds at 15mm. Adjusted white balance of 5000K on the left but I have included, below, the same photograph with a white balance of 24ooK which,although much cooler, gives some very interesting colour variations particularly in the sky and the reflections of the pier lights in the water.

I couldn't resist the illumination of the Queens Hotel. Exposure time 4 seconds at 16mm and white balance of 5450K.

Despite there being little evidence of Christmas elsewhere (as the sales were by now in full swing), this shop-front shows the traditional Christmas scene with full sized models. Exposure time was relatively fast at 0.7 seconds, presumably because of the closeness of the subject, and it was taken at 16mm with adjusted white balance of 5100K. One of the differences when using a wide-angle lens is that one has to get used to vertical lines at the edges of the shot not being parallel.

This brightly-lit scene was taken outside the Theatre Royal, with an exposure time of 20 seconds (hence the blurred figures on the left-hand side and the car head-light trail on the right) at 16mm with an adjusted white balance of 4900K.

Unfortunately, this shot showing part of the Brighton Pavillion is not as sharp as it should be but I like the illumination of the minarets, in particular. Exposure time was 30 seconds with the lens at its widest possible setting of 16mm. White balance of 5450K.

Chiclana Photo Competition

2009-12-28T11:04:00.005+01:00

I have just won a photo competition! Go figure.

The town council where we have been living in Spain decided to invite foreign residents to enter up to 5 photographs on the theme "Chiclana - another view". Along with the photographs, they asked entrants to submit a few words to describe each one. The winning photo would be framed and displayed in one of the municipal buildings.

Now there are many problems with the local council and very many photo opportunities showing unfinished projects and poorly designed buildings etc but these were unlikely to win their approval! I decided to submit my 5 photographs each with a positive message and also with a translation into Spanish. In this way I hoped to increase my chances in the competition should there be a 'tie-break' situation.

In the end, there were about a dozen entrants and over 40 photographs submitted; not a tremendous number but enough.

The winning entry was called "La Puerta Abierta" (The Open Door) and shows one of the more interesting buildings in the centre of the town.

It wasn't my favourite photo but I think that the composition is good and well balanced. Perhaps it could be a little sharper - it was the only one of my entries to have been taken 'hand-held', but at A4 size (that required by the rules) it was fine. It was taken with my Canon 1000DSLR and Tamron 18 - 270mm lens @ 21mm, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/400 secs and f/4.5. The accompanying description was as follows-

"There are many hidden architectural gems in Chiclana and this building at 7, Calle de Garcia Gutierrez, built in 1727, is a fine example. The open door suggests to me that we, as foreign residents, should look beyond the obvious in order to have a better understanding of a different culture and history."

Profound, huh?

I was unable to attend the prize-giving presentation of as I am in the UK at present but all the photographs in the competition are being exhibited for a week in the local theatre's gallery.

My other entries in the competition are shown below.

"The Morning Lights of Chiclana".

"Dawn in Sancti Petri"

"The Penitent"

"Sunday in La Barrosa"

All in all, it was a very interesting experience and, for me, the lessons are to make sure you understand the purpose of the competition and to follow the rules to the letter.

Project 51 - Tungsten lights

2009-12-01T19:39:00.003+01:00

This was the first project of section 6 'Artificial Light' and it looked at tungsten lighting.

As suggested, I found a room lit by tungsten bulbs (60 watt) and looked out of the window when the light outside was fading. On looking back into the room after a minute, the light in the room was clearly yellowish although it appeared to become less so after a couple of minutes. However, on quickly looking outside again, the lack of colour of the outside light contrasted with the light in the room to which my eyes had started to become accustomed - my eyes had thought that the room light was now almost colourless but the contrast with the outside light showed that this wasn't so.

Using my camera's meter, at ISO 100 and a wide aperture of f/3.5, the required shutter speed varied between 0.7 seconds in the middle of the room to 4 seconds in a 'dark' corner. This wouuld be too slow for a sharp hand-held shot, making a tripod essential in these conditions.

Project 50 - Rain

2009-11-17T12:42:00.003+01:00

Taking advantage of a rare rainy day in Spain (it rains mainly in the plain but sometimes on the coast!), I took these four photographs of the rain and rain effects.

Firstly, I used my tripod to take this shot of an hibiscus in the garden, complete with raindrops. It is always difficult to know where to focus on a flower of this type but I settled on the stamen. Taken at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/200 secs and f/5.6 @ 168mm.

Secondly, I like this group of raindrops on one of the hand-rails at the beach. I chose a wide aperture to give a shallow depth of field in order to blur the background for greater impact. Taken at ISO 800 (because of the dull light), shutter speed 1/500 and f/5.6 @154 mm.

This shot is about reflections in a large puddle along the promenade. I would have liked to get the actual palm tree as well as its reflection but this wasn't possible. ISO 800, shutter speed 1/350 secs and f/10 @39 mm.

Finally, this shot says to me "rainy day" with the gloom, puddles and absence of people (apart from would-be photographers on a mission!). ISO 800, shutter speed 1/350 secs and f/8 @77mm.

Assignment 3

2009-11-13T15:34:00.012+01:00

The purpose of this third assignment has been to consolidate learning so far by producing a photographic essay. I chose as my subject the holiday weekend of 10th/11th/12th October (to commemorate Spain's National Day on 12th October) in the coastal area where I live in Spain and although it was October, the weather was excellent with clear skies and warm weather about 25 degrees C, and there were many people enjoying themselves on the beach and in the bars and restaurants. I took a series of photographs, mainly during Sunday 11th October, which I think capture a typical day by the seaside. From the 25 shots taken, I have chosen the following as being representative. All photographs for this assignment were taken in RAW with a Canon EOS 1000D SLR and Tamron 18 - 270mm lens. Processing was done using Elements 7.

I first of all took my tripod to the nearby fishing port of Sancti Petri to capture some sunrise shots. In October there was some cloud around at sunrise and this ensured some stunning sunrises which I tried to capture.

This first photograph was taken just before sunrise and it has been significantly cropped from the original to give this composition. As well as the colours, I like the horizontal lines formed by the reed banks and water channels as well as the distant hills. Taken at shutter speed of 1/350 secs, f/4.5 at 91mm and ISO 400.

This second shot shows the sun rising over the town of Chiclana and over a number of moored boats around the harbour. I love the reflections in the water and the colour of the sky. The shot was taken at ISO 400 with a shutter speed of 1/250 secs and f/5.6 @ 154mm

During the first hour after sunrise, the sun is very low in the sky and casts long shadows. Taken with the sun over my left shoulder, this photograph of three early morning dog-walkers on La Barrosa beach shows the wonderful light at this time of day The figures were deliberately placed in the right hand upper quadrant of the frame to give the shot a more dynamic quality. Taken at ISO 400with a shutter speed of 1/1000 and f/5.6 @ 270mm.

The other early morning shot that I took was this one looking along the line of the promenade with the sun to my right. The strong shadows from the palm trees can be seem across the beach and, in contrast to later in the day, this is almost deserted. ISO 400, shutter speed of 1/1000 and f/4.5 @59mm.

One of the 'iconic' landmarks of La Barrosa beach is the offshore island of Sancti Petri. I wanted to take a different shot by finding something to frame the island. A piece of equipment in the shape of a boat in the children's playground was ideal with its round portholes looking out to sea. With some difficulty (as the was nowhere to balance a tripod) I managed to get this shot of the island. ISO 400, shutter speed of 1/1000 f/5.6 @119mm.

Later in the day, a number of vendors set up their stalls to sell crafts, 'designer' sunglasses and clothing, real imitation leather goods and caricatures. This colourful stall caught my eye and I have tried to crop it to achieve a balanced composition. ISO 400, shutter speed of 1/1500 secs and f/10 @ 65mm.

The next photograph was taken in the middle of the day and shows that the beach is now in full swing. There is a full time Red Cross (Cruz Roja) presence from a dedicated building, look-out towers, life boats and these vehicles which can be used on the beach. Taken at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/350 secs and f/10 @154mm.

The degree of crowding on the beach can be seen in this shot showing the sweep of the bay towards the luxury hotels seen at the top of the frame. Unlike the Costa del Sol with its high-rise buildings almost to the waters edge, on the Costa de la Luz there are strict building controls with a maximum of three storeys allowed. ISO 400, shutter speed 1/500 secs and f/10 @ 184mm.

I wanted to take some shots to show the hustle and bustle along the promenade as people check out the vendors stalls, make their way to the beach or the cafes or just take an afternoon stroll. This photograph has some strong colours with the red of the umbrella dominating but there are several strong blues - the sky, the lamp posts and the woman's dress on the right hand side. Taken at ISO 400, shutter speed of 1/500 secs at f/10 @77mm.

At the end of the day, the sunsets here can be quite spectacular. Here we have the setting sun with the silhouettes of several people at the waters edge. ISO 200, shutter speed 1/4 secs at f/22 @154mm.

After the sun went down and the lights started to come on the atmosphere around the bars changed and this shot shows the different lighting conditions, but still people are out and about. ISO 200, shutter speed 1/3 secs and f/8 @ 18mm.

I debated what photograph to use as my final shot but decided on this one of a lone fisherman gazing out to sea as it seems to capture an element of calm after a very busy day - I like the colours too!

ISO 200, shutter speed 1/200 secs at f/11 @109mm.

Conclusion

This has been a very interesting assignment and I have tried to produce well composed photographs with good use of colour in different lighting conditions. I am happy with these photographs although I would have liked to be a bit more 'pushy' and had a couple of close up shots of people, but I find this very difficult.

David du Chemin - "Within the Frame"

2009-10-10T18:34:00.004+02:00

Whilst browsing in Waterstones in June, I came across a wonderful book about photography by David du Chemin titled "Within the Frame: The journey of photographic vision" (published in 2009 by New Riders - ISBN-13 978-0-321-60502-3). The subject matter clearly has an overlap with the compositional elements of the Art of Photography course but it is much more - it is an insight into how the author approaches the art and a guide to how to photograph people and places from other cultures. And it has some fantastic photographs!

In his portraits, he seems to go the extra mile in forming a relationship with those he wishes to photograph with the result that they are just stunning. In his street scenes and landscapes, he has such a wonderful eye for detail and for capturing 'the' image - often by great persistence. Above all, throughout all his shots, is an incredible use of colour which almost jumps out of the page.

There are so many photographs that I love in this book, and each has a story to go with it. Probably my favourite is not one of the portraits but a shot taken at the Taj Mahal. Du Chemin talks about the challenge of shooting iconic places with fresh eyes and describes his first visit to the Taj Mahal. He found the experience disappointing as he felt that it was now only a tourist attraction of a former glory. Having taken the 'iconic' shot of the Taj Mahal in the reflecting pool he then walked about, finding his way into the nearby Mosque where he saw a worker sweeping the floor. He took a photograph from within the mosque, with the Taj Mahal framed by the door of the mosque and the sweeper in the foreground (Page 181). As du Chemin says "it perfectly expressed my feelings about it (the Taj Mahal) being a dusty monument now just kept clean for the tourists".

This book is truly inspirational and, at the same time very humbling, as every photograph shows what the art can achieve and how much novices, such as myself, have to learn, even if we had du Chemin's vision.

Project 40 - using a meter

2009-10-05T13:56:00.017+02:00

This project was aimed at improving understanding of the use of the camera's meter and how shots either 'over-exposed' or 'under-exposed' relative to the average meter reading may be better, or at least as acceptable.

Part 1

The first part of the project involved producing a number of photographs which were deliberately lighter or darker than average.

The first is the photograph on the right because the 'average' reading seemed to produce a washed-out shot as seen on the right, probably because of the contrast between the dark tiles and the white walls. The average meter reading at ISO 400 and shutter speed of 1/250 secs was f/6.7 but I reduced the aperture to f/13 to get better definition and textures.

Secondly, this shot of children's play equipment on the beach had the sand too bright at the average setting (f/13) and I took the shot again at f/19 will the result that the sand, sea and sky are more natural.

Part 2

The second part involved taking photographs with a spread of exposures around the one chosen as 'average' by the cameras meter (i.e.bracketing).

In this photograph of part of a hibiscus bush, taken at ISO 400, and shutter speed 1/125 secs, the 'best' exposure indicated by the camera was f/8. This (the shot on the left) seems ok but slightly over-exposed to me. The two exposures at wider aperture are unacceptable but both the underexposed shots, f/10 in the middle and f/11 on the right are better. I prefer the f/11 photograph (one f-stop underexposed from the 'best) as the colours have more depth.

The second subject was banana leaves (at least I think they were!).

Here we have a similar story to the hibiscus bush with the 'best' exposure - on the left (again f/8 with the other settings the same) - appearing a little washed-out and those overexposed being unacceptable. The middle shot at f/10 is fine but the best is the one on the right at f/11. It would have been interesting to have seen with this subject whether an exposure at higher than f/11 would have been within the range of acceptable exposures.

The third set of shots was of a totally different subject - the shore-line.

In this case, I think that the 'best' case - f/16 (the other settings being the same) - and the centre shot -f/19 - are acceptable whereas the photo on the right, at f/22, looks to me a little underexposed (and a bit kodachromy!). Again the overexposed shots were too washed-out.

Fourthly, these shots of a toy fish in a childrens' play area on the beach

Again, the 'best' exposure shot on the left (f/11) is OK although the sand lacks detail, in my view, although the fish is spot on. A better balanced shot is the centre one, half a stop underexposed at f/13. Here the sand has more definition and the fish, although not quite as vibrant, is fine. For me, the shot at f/16 on the right is a little too underexposed. The two shots more overexposed than that at f/11 were too washed out in the strong sunlight.

Finally, a photograph of a concrete bench and the shadow it produced. The 'best' shot from the

meter reading was f/13, on the left and it is just acceptable although the top of the bench lacks much definition. The f/19 shot on the right has more definition in the bench but the shadows are rather too dark. The middle shot, half an f-stop underexposed at f/16, is the best with better definition both of the bench and in the shadow.

It has been very informative for me that the 'best' shot isn't always the one to go for and, on the evidence of the 5 different photographs above, there are a high proportion of occasions when an underexposed shot (and maybe an overexposed one in certain conditions and to others tastes) is more than acceptable.

Project 38 - measuring the intensity of light

2009-10-04T10:15:00.003+02:00

For this project, I used ISO 100 on my digital camera and a fixed shutter speed of 1/125 secs. I was blessed with a warm, sunny October day here in Spain.

Sunrise was at 08.25 and I took my first reading at 08.55. Sunset was at 20.25 and the last reading was taken at 19.00. The results were as follows-

o8.55 - f/3.5
09.30 - f/11
10.00 - f/14
10.30 - f/13 (slight haze)
11.00 - f/16
11.30 - f/16
12.30 - f/16
13.30 - f/16
14.00 - f/16
15.00 - f/16
16.00 - f/16
17.00 - f/13 (slight haze)
18.00 - f/13
19.00 - f/11

As predicted in the course notes, the readings levelled off later in the morning as the sun reached about 40 degrees.

In other seasons, I would expect the width of the 'maximum brightness' band to increase as the sun would be above 40 degrees for longest in mid-summer (more time at the maximum) and for the shortest time in mid-winter (less time at the maximum).

Before this section on lighting, I would have thought that the intensity of light would increase during the day to a peak and that the intensity would be greatest at the Equator, where the sun is directly overhead, than in the UK (say). This does not appear to be the case.

Finally, a couple of readings were taken indoors during the day. Whilst the required f-stop outside was 16, that indoors varied from 5.6 to 9, about 2 to 3 f-stops lower, showing that there are lower light levels indoors even on a bright, sunny day.

Assignment 2 - colour

2009-09-27T10:42:00.014+02:00

This second assignment is all about colour and, although this is all around us, it was not an easy assignment to produce examples of the different colour relationships. I have tried here to vary the subject matter and not to forget the lessons learned previously about design and composition.

All photographs for this assignment were taken in Raw and I have used the Raw plug-in for Photoshop Elements 7 to process them and crop to size/straighten the horizon where required. At this stage of my learning, I haven't used any other tools in Elements 7 ( with the exception of the perspective tool!).

Colour harmony through complementary colours

Complementary colours face each other across the colour circle and their juxtaposition is striking and very pleasing.

This first example was taken on a recent visit to Seville and is a simple shot of some stacked green cafe chairs next to some folded red umbrellas. This was a hand-held shot taken with my Canon 1000 DSLR with Tamron 18 - 270mm lens (as with all the shots in this assignment unless indicated otherwise), ISO 400, shutter speed 1/400 secs and f/11 @55mm. Unfortunately, the chair on the right is a little over-exposed because of the strong sunlight.

Another example of the red and green colour is this local hand-painted road sign, somewhat overgrown with green leaves which form a very attractive border around the red circle and makes the whole road-sign

really stand out. Again the shot was hand-held at ISO 400 at shutter speed 1/125 secs and f/5.6 @ 168mm.

A third red/green shot is this taken at the old port of Sancti Petri. I love the texture of the wall with the faded green 'P' sign and the more modern red Coca cola 'flag'. The long shadow cast by

the flag indicate that this shot was taken about an hour before sun-set. ISO 400, hand-held shutter speed 1/400 secs and f/11 @ 65mm.

Another colour relationship, and probably my favourite, is orange/blue. I spotted this collection of road barriers on the local promenade that were in readiness for an event the following day.

I like the composition but there is an interesting vertical blue tube in the centre which contrasts with the prevailing orange colour. Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/200 secs, f/6.3 @ 100mm.

A more striking example is this shot of a Japanese tourist in Seville. The deep blue of the shoulder bag complements the orange of the shopping bag (its a pity I couldn't get more of it!).

The green of the bush adds to the harmony of the shot with the orange and green being contrasting colours a third of the way around the colour circle. Hand-held at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/1000 secs, f/11 @ 168 mm.

Finally, a violet/yellow combination in this photo of a gourd against the background of my wife's violet jumper gives a very pleasing combination.

This shot was taken using a tripod at ISO 100, shutter speed 3.2 secs, f/13 @77mm.

Colour harmony through similar colours

This section relates to colours that are 'similar' i.e. near to each other in the colour circle.

The first shot I have chosen shows the 'cool' combination of blue and green. This collection of

fishing baskets taken at the port of Sancti Petri are predominantly blue with several green sections, as shown, and the odd yellow piece has crept in at the top of the shot. This was a much bigger pile of baskets but I decided to focus in to get right amongst them. Hand-held using a Canon 18 - 55mm lens @ 35mm, shutter speed 1/2500 secs at f/4.

I hope that my second choice is acceptable although the varnished wood is a very dirty orange colour in contrast to the less-saturated orange of the revealed wood and archway. Anyway, I saw this doorway in Chiclana and loved the colours and the peeling effect, and so decided to use it. The two 'oranges'

give a very warm combination. Hand-held, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/200 secs, f/5 @ 77mm.

This young couple with their toddler in a push-chair attracted my attention because of the light green colour of the mans t-shirt and the yellow/orange colour of the hood of the push-chair

This colour combination is very close on the colour circle but, for me, is neither a cold or warm combination, perhaps because of the unsaturated colours. Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/200 secs, f/11 @ 59mm.

The fourth shot is another blue/green combination but it doesn't seem a cold combination here, perhaps because of the blue sky which implies warmth (well it does in Seville in September!). It shows the cupola of a small shrine on the Triana side of the Isabel II bridge across the River Guadalquivir in Seville. The colours of the blue tiling and the green miniature columns are wonderful and this is made even more intense by the blue sky (yes!, it really was that colour!).

Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/500 secs, f/11 @ 77mm.

As an extra photograph, I have included this misty landscape of the distant hills from the highest point in Chiclana, the Santa Ana church. The shot was taken on a very cloudy morning over the rooftops of nearby buildings towards the east and I was trying to see how much detail I could obtain of the very distant mountain range. The result exceeded my expectations and I obtained

this very surreal image with subtle bands of colour distinguishing the different ranges of hills into the distance. There is a gradual change from the blue of the foreground to a more grey colour in the far distance but I have included it here for that reason. Hand-held, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/400 secs, f/7.10 @ 270mm.

Colour harmony through contrasting colours

The relationship here is between colours spaced about a third of the way around the colour circle e.g. blue/red, orange/green, red/yellow.

My first example is a portrait of two girls wearing red and blue tops. This was taken during a portrait session with my local camera group using a tripod, flash, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/125 secs, f/5.6 @77mm.

Secondly, this photo shows grandmother and her granddaughter having fun in a park in Cádiz.

I was really pleased to get this action shot and the orange of the woman's dress is great against the green leaves of the bushes behind. Taken hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/80 seconds, f/5.0 @ 70mm.

This photograph was taken from the shore at Sancti Petri. The red of the windsurfer and the yellow of the buoys are contrasting colours. Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/160 secs, f/11 @ 270mm.

I came across this window display in Seville and I love the intensity of all the colours but particularly the contrasting orange of the bedspread and the green of the cushions. These window display people obviously know something about colour combinations!

Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/30 secs, f/11 @ 109mm.

Colour accent

I found this the most difficult of the four sections to find suitable photographs. What I have come up with is a mixture of arranged and 'uncontrolled' situations.

This first is another use of a marker-buoy in the channel at Sancti Petri. The 'spot' of colour on the blue sea made by the buoy, and the reflexion in the very calm water, shows the relationship between the red and blue very well and I like the reflexion of the mast of a sailing boat which crosses the centre of the frame.

Hand-held, ISO 400 in early morning light, shutter speed 1/250 secs, f/5.6 @ 142mm.

Secondly, this close-up shot of an hibiscus flower in our garden has a very pleasing colour combination. I went for a shallow depth-of-field by focusing on the yellow stamen and leaving the petal out of focus and this works well, in my view.

Taken with a tripod, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/25 secs, f/10 @ 270mm.

Thirdly, when an Alaskan circus came to Chiclana, I couldn't resist taking some shots of their large blue and white tents with their wonderful flowing shapes. I chose the angle for this shot to include all three tops of the large tents and the two red stars was an added bonus. I think that the blue of the sky and the predominantly blue of the tents make a good background for the

'accent' of the red stars. Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/1250 secs, f/11 @ 168mm.

Finally, this arranged photograph of a 'fit-ball' on our lawn is not quite as boring as I thought it might be. I like the texture of the grass and the slightly different greens but the blue ball stands out here. The shadow made by the ball also draws the eye towards the centre of the frame.

Hand-held, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/15 secs, f/5.6 @ 25mm.

Conclusion

There is no doubt in my mind that I have gained a greater appreciation of the role of colour in the composition of photographs and, although many of the photographs for this assignment would not be numbered amongst my favourites (although some are), I believe that they show a good use of colour relationships. In reviewing the technical data, I believe that I should have made greater use of my tripod for greater sharpness and I will address this in the future.

Project 29 - applying the elements of design

2009-08-23T13:38:00.008+02:00

This was a relatively large project to draw together the learning in Chapter 3. We were asked to produce at least 10 photographs, all of a similar subject, which between them show th effects indicated below. A number of groups of subjects were suggested but I chose something different - 'the sea-side'.

Single point dominating the composition

I have chosen three photographs here.

The one above shows a lone runner, running along the shoreline in the early morning. His red vest draws the eye. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/400 secs, f/11 @119mm with the Tamron telephoto lens.).

This shows a kite flying against a background of the blue sea and it really dominates the composition. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/500 secs, f/11 @ 200mm).

2 points

Walking along the shoreline just after dawn, I took this photograph of a piece of sea-weed and

a sea-shell on the beach. What makes it interesting are the long shadows produced by the low-lying sun. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/30 secs, f/11 @ 84mm).

several points in deliberate shape

The windsurfer and the two yellow buoys provide a composition with several points, although how deliberate the shape is a matter for debate! ISO 400, f/11, shutter speed 1/160 secs @270 mm.

a combination of vertical and horizontal lines

This photograph showing part of a wooden fence protecting the sand dune vegetation, contrasts the verticals of the wood with the horizontals of the shoreline at the top of the picture and the strong left to right shadows along the beach. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/250 secs, F/11 @ 109mm).

diagonals

I have included several examples of diagonals

Here, the fisherman's rod makes a strong diagonal across the frame. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/160 secs, f/11 @218mm).

In the above, diagonal shadows are cast across the beach by the palm trees in the early morning sun. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/3200 secs, f/4.5 @ 50mm).

This collection of beach umbrellas and sun-beds forms a strong diagonal across the frame. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/3200 secs, f/5.0 @ 84mm).

Finally, this childrens beach equipment also forms a strong diagonal across the frame. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/2500 secs, f/5.6 @ 119mm).

curves

The curves here are formed by part of the hand-rail of a path leading onto the beach. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/60 secs, f/11 @84mm).

distinct, even if irregular, shapes

The shallow depth of field in this shot emphasises the shape of the grasses in the foreground. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/320 secs, f/11 @ 270mm).

The shape of this public telescope on the promenade stands out clearly against the plain background. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/400 secs, f/5.0 @ 91mm).

at least two types of implied triangle

By holding the shower with her right hand while standing on her left leg, the shape of the womans body makes an implied triangle whose right-angle is the intersection of the ground and the shower, (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/1250 secs, f/6.3 @270mm).

The triangle implied here by the man sitting with his beach stuff is formed with he apex as his head and the sides extending down his legs on the left and along his back and beach umbrella on the right. (ISO 400, shutter speed 1/4000 secs, f/4,5 @ 46mm).

Finally, these colourful waste bins give an implied triangular shape with the apex at the bottom.

rhythm

To be completed

pattern

To be completed

Project 27 - real and implied circles

2009-08-23T13:37:00.006+02:00

The final shape under consideration was the circle. They were not very easy to find but the following are examples.

This shot of a young family walking along the promenade is much stronger, in my view, because of the circular 'inflatable' that the man is carrying which leaves us in no doubt as to their

destination! Taken with the Canon 18 - 55mm lens @ 34mm, f/4.5, 1/4000s shutter speed and ISO 400 (without tripod).

Secondly, this Nestlé sweet dispenser outside one of the cafés on the promenade would not have been so interesting were it not for the presence of the young woman indicated by its hand.

This was shot with the 18 - 55lens @27mm, f/11, shutter speed of 1/800s and ISO 400 (without tripod).

The third photograph has a circular shaped bush in the foreground and a footbridge crossing the river in Chiclana behind. I think that this makes the shot more interesting than 'just another bridge shot', although I couldn't say that the shape of the bush is particularly relevant, although pleasing.

The shot was taken at midday in bright sunshine (of course!), with the Tamron 18 - 270mm lens @39mm, f/11, shutter speed 1/400s and ISO 400 (without tripod).

As part of this project, we were asked to find at least 2 'implied' circular arrangements from the textbook. I think that there are several but I have chosen the following-

- Page 109, Paul Young "A Loving Couple" on the Sands, Yarmouth, taken in 1892 has the couple making a circular arrangement on the beach and the footmarks around them accentuates this.

- Page 187, Robert Capa's Spanish Civil War photograph "Loyalist soldiers find time while preparing for an attack to write letters; during the 1936-37 campaign" . The shape of the two soldiers in their trench makes a clear implied circle.

- Page 117, Albert Renger-Patzsch, "A Teazel" from his 1934 study of plant life.

Project 26 - real and implied triangles

2009-08-19T18:34:00.008+02:00

The next shape under consideration is the triangle. Two sets of triangular compositions were required, one using real triangles and the other making 'implied' triangles.

Real

1. Firstly, a subject that is itself a triangle. I chose the roof of the local church on a sunny morning, using my Tamron 18 - 270 lens @18mm, ISO 400, f/14 and shutter speed of 1/50s.

2. Secondly, a triangle made by perspective, converging towards the top of the frame. For this, I shot the corner of a three-storey building in Cádiz from ground level, thus giving the triangular shape converging towards the top of the frame.

Again using the Tamron 18 - 270 lens @ 18mm, ISO 400, f/6.3 and shutter speed of 1/320s.

3. Thirdly, an inverted triangle, also by perspective, converging towards the bottom of the frame. +++++++++

Implied

1. A still-life arrangement of 5-6 objects to produce a triangle with the apex at the top.

This traditional Moroccan tagine helps provide a strong triangular composition. ISO 100 (with tripod), f/4, shutter speed 0.60 secs using 18 - 55mm lens @21mm.

2. A still-life arrangement as above, but so that the triangle is inverted, with the apex at the bottom.

This simple arrangement of pens and pencils in a glass was taken at ISO 100, f/4, shutter speed of 30 secs using the 18 - 55mm lens @ 35mm.

3. An arrangement of 3 people in a group picture in such a way that either their faces or the lines of their bodies makes a triangle.

ISO 200, shutter speed 1/5s, f/7.1 using Tamron 18 - 270mm lens @ 55mm. Tripod and no flash.

Project 24 - shapes

2009-08-16T13:22:00.008+02:00

In Project 24 we have to produce photographs which stress the shape of the subjects chosen.

The first two were taken with the sun directly behind the subjects, first of a tower and then of a subject I have used in the past, a first-aid look-out on the beach.

The tower shot was taken at f/14, ISO 400 and shutter speed 1/250s with the Tamron 18 - 270mm lens @ 130mm.

The shot of the first-aid lookout used the Canon 18 - 55mm lens @55mm, f/11, shutter speed of 1/320s and ISO 400. Although it was suggested that we should avoid trees as they do not normally have simple outlines, I think that the shape of the tree in this shot is very pronounced.

The third photo was taken at the same early morning but with the sun directly shining onto the subject, part of a 'wave' sculpture on the promenade. Against the plain background, the shape is very clear.

This was taken with the 18 - 270mm lens @ 77mm, f/14, shutter speed of 1/250s and ISO 400 (without tripod).

Finally, I wanted to include a photograph which I took at the Iguassú Falls in Argentina earlier this year, before I started this course. My wife and I were standing on one of the walkways which cross the river near the falls and taking some photographs into the distance when we noticed the very strong reflections of ourselves in the water below. The brightness of the sun and the clarity and shallowness of the water make our shapes really stand out.

My wife is waving and I am the one with the camera! It isn't quite clear enough to make out but I was using my Canon 18 - 55mm lens @43mm. The camera was on an Auto setting (f/7.1, shutter speed 1/64s and ISO 200). How cliched is that?

Project 25 - rectangles

2009-08-16T13:22:00.006+02:00

I chose several examples of rectangles from within walking distance of our house and, as indicated in the course text, there were many examples to choose from. All shots were taken about two hours dawn on a bright sunny day using the Canon DSLR with Tamron 18 - 270mm lens (without tripod), at ISO 400 and 'Daylight' setting for white balance.

The first shot is a very simple close up of a brick wall, a collection of rectangular shapes, at f/14, shutter speed of 1/20s @ 70mm.

Secondly, I photographed a newly constructed pergola on our local promenade in such a way that the shot shows interlocking rectangles receding into the middle distance, with the ground being their base.

For this photo I used f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/50s @39mm.

Thirdly, the two-tone blue doors of the jewellery kiosks form obvious rectangles.
Taken at f/14, shutter speed of 1/50s @39mm.

Finally, the photo of this modern building shows a design full of rectangular shapes; the walls, window frames, shutters, railings etc. Taken with f/14, 1/100s shutter speed @119mm.

Having done this project, I can better appreciate the difficulties in keeping the shapes looking rectangular. Despite my best endeavours during framing the shots, some 'tweaking' was required on several of the shots to achieve this.

Project 23 - implied lines

2009-08-13T10:08:00.008+02:00

The first part of the project was to study two photographs in the course material and to find the implied lines. I can't show this here but in the bullfighting image there seemed to be an implied circular movement with the bull-fighter in the centre and a strong implied line to the right - the expected movement of the bull. In the Gotthard Schuh shot of the man training two horses, there are two implied lines; one is of the man moving towards the centre of the frame but a stronger one from the horses to a position in the middle of the lower frame edge.

In the second part, we were asked to select three of our own photos from the past which we could use to show 'implied lines', either an eye line or the extension of a line that points.

I have chosen three shots as shown below-

The shot on the left shows a clear focus of attention on our grand-daughter, Jessica, from both of her parents and her grandma.

Secondly, the middle photo of the three figures gives a very strong line of direction to the left and out of the frame. I love this shot; I wanted to capture the wonderful ochre colour between these buildings in Jerez and this trio came along at just the right moment!

Finally, a shot I have used before but with a very clear sense of direction from the diagonal line of the kayak, the direction of the man and the off-centre composition.

The third part of the project was to plan and take two photos that use either an eye-line to lead the eye or the extension of a line, or lines that point.

As an example of an eye-line, I took the following shot, of a group of young men, in Cádiz. The eye-lines of the young man on the right, and the rather portly gentleman leaning on the wall, are both directed to the group on the left.

This shot was taken without a tripod, using my Canon camera and Tamron 18 - 270mm lens @109mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 and shutter speed of 1/200s.

As an example of an extension of a line that points, I wanted to highlight the figure on the right (my wife!) as she was doing some stretching exercises, but within the context of the construction work going on behind. I was able to use the upright of the pergola on the right to 'point' at her, thus making her more obvious in the frame within a rather busy composition.

The shot was taken without tripod, using my Canon 18 - 55 lens @ 55mm, ISO 400, f/11 and shutter speed of 1/40s.

Project 22 - curves

2009-08-12T18:20:00.000+02:00

Having looked at points and various straight lines, this project requires four photographs with curves.

For the first, I have chosen a shot of part of the ceiling of the new indoor market in Chiclana de la Frontera. The shot was taken with a tripod, under tungsten lighting, using the Tamron 18 - 270 lens @ 46mm, f/6.3, 4 sec shutter speed and ISO 100. I love the succession of curves and the differences in tone caused by the light from the windows at each end of market hall and the different types of lighting used within the building.

Secondly, this close-up of a bench along the riverside in Chiclana has some beautiful swirls

and patterns. It was taken, using a tripod, with the same lens as the shot above at f/22, 1/3s shutter speed, ISO 100 @ 84mm.

Next, I have included a photograph of part of modern sculpture by Gunilla Bandolin in the Fundación NMAC sculpture park near Vejer de la Frontera. It is called 'Sky's Impression' and

is a series of concentric circles which form steps and the sculpture has an opening at one end to allow water to flow into a small pool at the bottom. The shot was taken in early evening and the shadows cast on the curves by the sun from the right are quite dramatic. For this photo I used my Canon 18 - 55 lens @ 47mm without tripod, f/5.6, 1/3200s shutter speed and ISO 400.

Finally, I took a close-up of a tile used in another sculpture in the park, this by Shen Yuan, called 'Bridge'. The design is full of curves of all sizes and is a beautiful piece of art in itself, irrespective

of the actual piece of sculpture. The photograph was taken at dusk without a tripod, again using the 18 - 55 lens but @50mm, f/11, 1/5s shutter speed and ISO 800.

Project 21 - diagonals

2009-08-10T18:15:00.000+02:00

Having looked at both horizontal and vertical lines, this project was about 'diagonals'.

My first example was taken along the riverside in Chiclana de la Frontera and, taken from this angle, the wall forms a very strong diagonal. This may have been even stronger had the wall gone from bottom left to top right rather than the other way around. The shot was taken with my Canon 1000D SLR, using the Canon 18 - 55 lens @36mm, f/22, 1/50s and ISO 400.

Secondly, this row of small boats at Sancti Petri port forms an interesting diagonal as does the pier at the top. For this shot I used the Tamron 18 - 270 lens @109mm, f/5.6, 1/2500s, ISO 400.

For the third photo, I went to Chiclana indoor market for this shot of a market stall from above and at an angle. The diagonal formed by the fruit stall and the line of waiting customers is very pleasing. Taken using the Canon 18 - 55 lens @ 37mm, f/4.5, 1/400s and ISO 800.

Finally, I have to admit that I was considering my final shot under the 'vertical' category but the more I looked at it the more obvious it was that the diagonals were much stronger with the shape of the roof and the direction of the wooden struts, the railings on the right-hand side, the

bench on the left and even the apparent diagonals formed by the shadows on the vertical metal supports. They all take the eye into the centre of the frame. This photo was taken using a tripod, Tamron 18 - 270 lens @55mm, ISO 100, f/5.6 and 1/500s.

Project 20 - horizontal and vertical lines

2009-08-08T11:06:00.002+02:00

Here, we were asked to photograph examples of horizontal and vertical lines to illustrate the different ways that they appear to the eye and the camera.

My first example of horizontal lines is shown below. It was taken on a typically (for here) bright, sunny day with very strong shadows. It is, in fact, a shot of the shadow made by a metal railing in Chiclana de la Frontera.

I used my tripod and 18 - 270mm Tamron lens @109mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 100.

For the second horizontal shot, I could have used a clichéd shot of the horizon but I decided on a clichéd photograph of the shoreline instead! I am pleased with this shot, taken about an hour after sunrise, as it has a number of horizontal lines - edge of the grass, lines on the beach, shoreline and waves. It was taken with the 18 - 270 lens @84mm, without tripod, f/22, 1/200s, ISO400.

Thirdly, this fruit stall in the local market, taken from above, has a number of horizontal lines formed by the counter and the divisions betwen the various friuts. This shot was take with the Canon 18 - 55 lens @ 55mm, f/6.3, 1/250s, ISO 800 and without a tripod.

The final horizontal shot is of steps leading up to the main church in the Plaza Mayor in Chiclana. The shadow on the steps accentuates the horizontals.

The horizontal lines comprising the steps are pretty obvious. The shot was taken using a tripod, 18 - 270 lens @168mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 100.

The first vertical photo shows several subjects - bell-tower, sun-umbrellas, lamp standards, green bush and the corner of a building which all make a strong image.

As with the other examples of 'verticals', the vertical frame adds to the strength of the composition. The shot was taken in Chiclana at noon using a tripod and the 18 - 270 lens @ 27mm, f/5.6, 1/1000s and ISO 100.

Secondly, this photograph of a palm tree in a square in Jerez was taken from the courtyard of a traditional Andalucian building and the view of the tree through the wooden doorframe adds to the strong 'vertical' feel.

The photo was taken, without tripod, with a 18 - 55 lens @18mm, f/9, 1/500s and ISO 400.

The third 'vertical' composition is another from the indoor market in Chiclana and shows awide concourse filled with shoppers, between rows of fruit and fish stalls. The shot was taken from the first floor balcony and this helps to strengthen the vertical composition. The Canon 18 - 55 lens was used @ 33mm, without tripod, f/6.3, 1/25s, ISO 800.

Finally, this photo of a modern office building in Chiclana contains a number of strong 'verticals'.

The glass frame within the brick building, the edge of the contrasting white building on the right and the small bush all accentuate the vertical composition. This shot was taken with a tripod, using the 18-270 lens @ 21mm, f/5.6, 1/400s and ISO 100.

Project 19 - multiple points

2009-08-08T11:06:00.001+02:00

This was an exercise in grouping a number of 'points' in an attractive relationship. Described in the course material as "one of the three basic skills" of still-life photography, this was a project which I found extremely hard to self-assess, probably because I am still getting to grips with this idea of a 'network of lines' linking a group of objects.

For this series of photographs, I used eight identical objects, these being Nespresso coffee capsules on a grey background (I chose the 'Capriccio' blend as this is one of my favourites and the capsules had a dark green colour so that they would stand out better). With the camera on a tripod (of course!), I used the Canon 18 - 55 lens @ 49mm, f/5.6. 1/4s and ISO 100.

The series of photographs is shown below.

Personally, I find the sequence quite pleasing, with the possible exception of the last one which detracts from the curve formed by the five middle capsules (ignoring the top and bottom most ones). However, the placement of the last capsule does produce a very strong top left to bottom right diagonal of four capsules.

I have to say that I showed this sequence to my wife and she fell over laughing at the first photo of a single capsule. To avoid further embarrassment, I made a cup of coffee with it later!

I need to investigate how I can show lines using Elements 7 so that I can add this to the blog.

To be continued.

Project 18- relationship between points

2009-08-06T18:26:00.000+02:00

Three photographs of two isolated points in the frame were required in this project

In the first shot, there are two green buoys, at equal distance from the edge of the frame. The buoy on the right, although slightly further away, draws more attention than the other because of its size and more interesting shape but also for its reflexion in the water.

The second photo of a sailing boat and a yellow buoy gives clear prominence to the boat (which is, again, further away but larger) but here, interestingly, the relationship between the two is much reduced by two lines, the trail of a boat that has moved out of the frame to the left, and the line of the horizon which splits the frame.

Finally, another shot of buoys but this time I placed one very close to the edge of the frame to see the affect on the relationship between the two.

It seems to me that there is a more equal relationship between the two subjects. On the one hand, the red buoy is bigger and has a longer reflexion but is further away and closer to the edge of the frame. The other buoy, although smaller, is closer, more in the centre of the foreground and the yellow colour stands out more against the blue of the water.

Project 17 - positioning a point

2009-08-06T18:16:00.000+02:00

For this project, we were asked to take three photographs in which there is a single point, placed in a different part of the frame in each example.

I returned to Sancti Petri in order to take this series of shots of a yellow buoy in the estuary; a bright 'point' against a contrasting blue background. All shots were taken about an hour after dawn on a clear morning using the 18 - 270 Tamron lens @ 218mm without tripod. All at f/6.3 and ISO 400 although the shutter speed was slightly different in each case as indicated.

The first photo (shutter speed 1/1600s) has the buoy right in the centre and it seems to me that the eye

is not drawn to any other part of the frame because it appears that the buoy is the 'centre of attention' and the background doesn't seem important. I presume this is what is meant by a 'static' composition.

Next, I composed a shot (shutter speed 1/1250s) with the buoy in the upper right of the frame. Here, there is much more of a relationship between the buoy and the background (i.e. the water) and I think the eye, although drawn to the 'point', starts to investigate the rest of the frame and there is clearly a stronger relationship with the frame itself because of the buoys closer proximity to it.

Finally, I took a shot (shutter speed 1/1000s) with the buoy a little off-centre. To me, it gives some impression of movement (either away from or towards the centre) but there is less of the relationship with the frame (because it is further away) and the background (because it is closer to the centre) than in the second shot.

I think that the second shot is the most interesting because of these strong relationships.

Project 16 - defining a point

2009-08-06T17:34:00.000+02:00

We are asked in this project to consider situations which would constitute a clear photograph of a 'point', this being defined as a subject which is small in the frame and which contrasts, in some way, with its surroundings.

I came up with the following list of possible situations:

- a boat or other object (e.g. a buoy) on water

- subject of contrasting colour in a field/landscape

- animal/bird/insect against foliage/grass

- a light source in a darkened room

- bird/plane/kite/hot-air balloon against a blue sky

- climber against a rock face

- centre of a flower with contrasting colour to its petals

- fruit/flower on a bush

- brightly dressed person crossing against a plain background

- a colourful umbrella in the rain

- patch of sunlight on the ground under foliage

- sunset/sunrise

- the Moon

- brightly coloured tent in a field

I have looked through my library of photographs for some examples and have found a few but not as many as I expected, perhaps because I haven't tried to capture such compositions in the past. Those which I did found were isolated figures/vehicles in a plain landscape, insects/birds on a background of leaves or flowers, examples of which are shown below -

Assignment 1 Feedback/Review

2009-07-31T09:52:00.000+02:00

Having received feedback from my tutor on the Assignment 1 (the theory and practice of contrasts) photographs, I can now see the deficiencies in many of the compositions I submitted. The tutor critique is an incredibly helpful part of this course and I have reviewed my submissions in the light of the feedback received.

There was a general comment about my images being 'purely illustrative' rather than being framed with a bit more imagination to get the sense of the attributes (my words!).

My reflections on the feedback are as follows.

Hard / Soft - For the two images - the rock face and the soft grasses - I needed to give some indication of scale. Perhaps a bird flying or a boat on the water in front of the rock face, for example, would have been better.

Rounded / Diagonal - In response to the suggestion that I should try the Photoshop perspective crop tool (what an amazing thing!) on the 'Diagonal' shot to correct some of the backward leaning verticals, I have revised the original shot as shown below. The revised shot is more tightly cropped using the perspective crop tool but there are still some unresolved issues with vertical lines. However, I feel this works better although I miss the red window in the original!

Large / Small - my tutor felt that the left hand shrubbery of the 'Large' shot let it down and that the tree lessened a dynamic image. I had taken a shot using a different camera angle (shown below) and this seems to work better and is s cleaner image.

Liquid / Solid - the shot of the fountain which illustrates 'Liquid' doesn't really work. As pointed out to me, it is shot too close, it contains too many different elements and the parasol in the background keeps drawing the eye. I should have seen this for myself and the more I look at this shot the more I dislike it!

I had cropped the shot of the ice-flow which illustrated 'Solid' but had been too harsh, giving the appearance of being too close to the subject. The uncropped photo was much better, with the benefit of hindsight, and this is shown below.

Black / White - my tutor commented on the many possibilities afforded by the black bench with regard to 'close-ups, sections and an array of viewing positions'. Unfortunately, I didn't pursue any of them and settled for the 'safe' shot (as opposed to the more adventurous shot of the white bench which illustrates 'white'. Next time!

Many / Few - the doorknocker shot for 'Few' was slightly overexposed and a re-processed shot is below.

Straight / Curved - one of the things I have to sort out is getting my verticals vertical! The shot of the Bahía Sur railway station suffered from my verticals being all over the place (not for the first time) and, as pointed out to me, I had included a lot of figures cut in half at the waist. I have made corrections to address these points in the revised shot below.

This assignment and the feedback have been very helpful and I intend to learn from the experience.

Assignment 1 - the theory and practice of contrasts

2009-07-30T13:31:00.000+02:00

Well, after two months of work on the course, it was time to submit my photographs for the first assignment. In the end, I chose a mixture of photographs taken before the course with the remainder (the majority) being from the last few weeks. Obviously, those pre-dating the start of the course were not taken to illustrate 'contrasts' but I felt that they had merit for this exercise.

All the photos were taken with my Canon DSLR (1000D), nearly all with the 18 - 55mm Canon lens (unless otherwise stated). As it happened, I used a tripod for only one of the shots although I recognise that some would have been improved by its use.

Hard / Soft

'Hard' ( f/8, 1/125s, ISO 200, 18 - 55 @32mm) was taken in Patagonia, Chile on Lago Gray in bright, sunny conditions. I was attracted to the colours of the rock formation and the horizontal gouges where the glacier ice, and the rocks that it contained, moved past the rock face. This demonstrates that the word 'hard' is relative. Nowadays, of course, the glacier has receded, thus revealing the rock face. I decided on a tight shot to accentuate the texture of the rock face.

'Soft' (f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200, 18 - 55 @ 55mm) was shot in the Ecological Park in Buenos Aires on a hot sunny morning in (their) autumn. This is land reclaimed from the River Plate and there were many of these grasses waving gently in the breeze. I decided to crop the original shot to focus on the softness of the grass.

Rounded / Diagonal

The 'rounded' shot ( f/11, 1/320s, ISO 200, 18-55@ 27mm) was taken on a bright day in a park in Buenos Aires and shows a beautiful metal structure in the shape of a tulip. The amazing thing, though, was that the flower sculpture opened in daylight and closed at night like a real flower. With the shape of the sculpture, I decided to crop to a square frame and I think that this works well.

The 'Diagonal' photo (f/13, 1/320s, ISO 200, 18-55@ 27mm) was taken in the coastal town of Valparaiso in Chile on a sunny afternoon and shows a collection of telephone and power lines which make attractive diagonals within the frame. This was a very colourful district of Valparaiso with many of the buildings brightly painted, the tradition being that the fishermen painted their houses with the paint left over from their boats.

Pointed / blunt

The 'pointed' shot (f/3.5, 1/320s, ISO 400, Tamron 18 - 270 @ 20mm) shows a number of kayaks in their storage racks in the old fishing port (now more of a water-sports port) of Sancti Petri, Cádiz). I was attracted by the bright colours as well as the interesting shapes. The original shot was cropped to achieve this composition and it was not an easy task as I was trying not to chop of too many of the kayaks 'noses'. It was a right sunny day but the plastic cover over the kayaks helped to diffuse the light.

The 'Blunt' composition (f/5, 1/100s, ISO 100, 18 - 55 @ 39mm), for which I used a tripod and remote control, shows a lump hammer (a 'blunt instrument'), two blunt pencils and a pencil sharpener. I took the photograph outside on a sunny morning but in the shade. The objects were placed on a black material background and photographed from above. I didn't use flash but this might have helped with the illumination?

Many / Few

I took the 'Many' shot (f/14, 1/160s, ISO 400 18-55@ 55mm) on a hazy, windy day at the gitanos (gypsy) market in Chiclana de la Frontera. Most of the merchandise is not of the highest quality and I thought that this was epitomised by this pile of cheap shoes. The colours were very attractive but it was difficult in the processing to avoid the white shoes having too much glare. The original photo was cropped to emphasise the jumble of shoes.

To illustrate 'Few', as a contrast to the jumble of shoes above, I came across these door-knockers, on the same day, in the centre of Chiclana itself. (f/4.5, 1/400s, ISO 400 18-55@ 27mm). I didn't want to take a front-on shot as the shape of the shoes would have been lost and so I moved slightly to the side of the door frame The sun was almost directly overhead so the reflection from the wooden door was very strong. The original shot was taken in a vertical frame but I decided to crop the picture to make the door-knockers more prominent, which I think was the right decision.

Black / White

The black bench ( f/5.6, 1/1250s, ISO 400, 18-55 @ 37mm) which I used to illustrate 'black', is in the Arenal Square (Plaza de Arenal) in Jerez de la Frontera. The photograph was taken at about 2pm in the heat of a hot, sunny day, which accounts for the very strong shadows cast by the bench and the nearby tree. It seemed to me a very striking object in that light when set against the almost white tiled ground. The original photo was cropped slightly to include all of the bench (slightly off-centre) and its shadow whilst retaining the tree and its shadow.

In contrast, I decided on a tight close-up of a white wooden bench to illustrate 'White'. (f/5, 1/4000s, ISO 400, 18-55 @ 43mm). I liked the fact that the bench was not new, so that the wood appears distressed and the wooden pieces are not parallel. However, in the midday sun in Jerez, it appeared very inviting!

Sweet / Sour

The photograph of two 'media-lunas' that is used to illustrate 'Sweet', was taken in a cafe in Buenos Aires. (f/5.6, 1/5s, ISO 200, 18-55 @ 48mm). I have to admit that this was taken very much as a holiday snap to remind us of our favourite Buenos Aires breakfast (we were non meat eaters in a city full of carnivores!) but I think that it captures the essence of 'sweet' very well. I used the camera flash to light the shot.

The photo of the two lemons in a friends garden, one ripe, the other still green, was used to illustrate 'Sour'. ( F/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 100, 18-55 @55mm). I was attracted to the two lemons side by side, on the same branch, in different states of ripeness. To achieve the composition, I lay down and took the shot from below, against a background of a white awning. I was very pleased to capture the texture and markings on the lemons and the shallow depth of field achieved.The shot was not specifically taken for use in this assignment but it seemed an obvious choice.

Liquid / Solid

The photo to illustrate 'Liquid' is a close-up of a fountain in Jerez. (f/16, 1/640s, ISO 400, 18-55 @ 53mm). I like the different sprays of water and the colour of the foliage.

For 'Solid', I have used another shot from Lake Gray in Patagonia, this time that of a small iceflow. (f/14, 1/250s, ISO 200, 18-55 @ 49mm). The shot was taken from a boat and the iceflow is in the centre of the lake, with a background of the rocky shoreline. I liked this shot because if shows the lovely blue colour in the ice as well as some of the debris carried from the glacier. The original photo was cropped to produce this composition.

Large / Small

On the approaches to Jerez, there is a huge work depicting a group of people arriving for a festival on their horses and in their wagons. I chose part of this work, featuring the lead three horses, depicted as if they were about to leap a fence. (f/4.5, 1/2000s, ISO 400, 18-55 @ 36mm). From the angle chosen, the horses appeared even larger than they were and the shot seemed to illustrate 'Large' very well.

In contrast, I managed to take the small model horse and rider through the bars of a metal gate in an Andalucian courtyard in Jerez. (f/9, 1/13s, ISO 400, 18-55 @ 55mm). It wasn't an easy angle to shot but I liked the composition with the old wooden unit. I cropped the original photo to remove a wooden doorway on the left-hand side.

Straight / Curved

Finally, I chose as my photo contrasting two attributes (straight and curved), this shot taken on a slightly overcast day at the new railway station at Bahía Sur/San Fernando near Cádiz. (f/18, 1/640s, ISO 400, Tamron 18-270 @ 59mm). Being a new station, it has been built with very modern materials and this has allowed modern design features like the curved roof shown in the photo. The contrast with the straight lines of the overhead electricity cables and scaffolding appealed to me. Again, some cropping was done to achieve the final shot.

Conclusion

I am quite pleased with the photos chosen to illustrate the various contrasts as it was not an easy task, in some cases, to show these attributes. I have certainly had to think hard about composition and try to apply the lessons taught so far.

All the recent (i.e. non South America shots) were taken in Camera Raw and processed using the raw plug-in within Photoshop Elements 7. I am still wrestling with the subtleties of this but it has been fun so far!